


Don't say a word.

by AyaKazumi



Category: Underfell (alternate universe), Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Abuse, Blood and Violence, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Healing, Reader is mute, Sans saves Reader, Soulmates, To other Humans, Violence, and monsters, at least for now, humans are assholes, humans with magic, reader gets magic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2020-05-14 14:17:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 29,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19275037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AyaKazumi/pseuds/AyaKazumi
Summary: You don't know the exact reasons but in the recent years, your parents went from hard-working and loving to abusive and angry individuals. One day, your father goes too far and you run away in fear for your life. While living on the streets, some people decide it'd be awesome to beat you up and are stopped by an unexpected savior.This might just turn your life for the better.





	1. Finally safe

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is my try at a bit of fluff. If you guys want more than this one-shot, tell me in the comments, I think I could expand on this (even if it's not planned)

Monsters have lived on the surface for a few years now. The government has allowed small numbers of them into separate cities, a few of them also in your city. When they first emerged from their prison underneath Mt. Ebott you thought you were dreaming, or rather: having a nightmare. They all looked scary and they were big too, which didn’t help the matter. 

Their King seemed to be the biggest of the two-legged Monsters, standing at a whopping 10 feet, give or take some inches. His big, curved horns reminded you of a goat of some kind, his white fur reinforced the thought. His dark hair and beard were a strong contrast to it. But he wasn’t the most scary one, by far. The population of monsters was diminished over the years of imprisonment under the mountain for rather violent reasons. The king and the captain of the royal guard, an enormous blue-scaled monster with long, red hair that reminded you of a fish, were taken to prison for killing 6 children. The trials were still running, even after all this time.

You didn’t know if it was the situation with the monsters, the fact that your parents lost both their jobs just a few months apart from each other, your boyfriend (which your parents liked more than you) breaking up with you or all the factors playing together that made your life a living hell. You hadn’t uttered a single word in years, seeing as your father or mother would strike you with the object they happened to be holding at the time or grabbing the closest thing laying around, the moment you tried saying something. 

So you became some kind of slave. They shoved you around at home, screaming at you for doing things differently than what they had told you or not having them done yet. They reduced the times of physical harm and limited that to your torso and legs so it wouldn’t show on your face or arms. You were sent to buy things with a list and counted money, so when you got home you had to give the rest back, down to the cent.

You lived your life like that for years now. How long exactly you couldn’t tell. But the last outbreak, that happened just one or two hours ago, made you snap. _You ran away._ After your father deemed the kitchen not clean enough, the dishes not stacked the way he liked and found the fridge not yet re-stocked, he took his prized baseball-bat, signed by some famous players, and tried bashing your ribs in. _**You ran away.**_

You wander the streets of the city aimlessly, avoiding the district where you just came from as if it was at fault for what happened. Late into the night, you go into the park you almost passed, to find a bench to sleep on. It might not be the most comfortable but it’s a solution for tonight. Laying down you look at the deep blue night sky. The light pollution of the city is so heavy that even the brightest stars were hard to spot. So you stare into the darkness of the sky until you feel sleep tugging your consciousness under.

Waking up with a jerk, you sit up and look around you. The sky is hardly brighter than when you fell asleep and there is no soul out on the streets yet. You sigh to yourself; sitting on this bench won’t help you. So you get up to start walking into the direction of the district you know offers the homeless shelter. It would be a cold autumn day, the clouds gathering in the sky above your head tell you that (also the breeze made you shiver, you were barely able to grab your thin jacket from the hanger next to the door as you were chased out by your furious father).

The following nights were not a lot easier. You met some other homeless people, one gave you a coat for the cold nights and another told you where you could beg for money and which shops would give you some free scraps. You tried thanking them by bringing part of your earned things for them and they appreciated it.

Roaming the backstreets of the district a few nights later, you didn’t pay attention where you were going. Lost in thought you stumbled past trash containers and draining pipes, dodging the closed-off areas of backyards. You didn’t even notice you were being followed until a fist met your back and you fall forwards onto the concrete, barely able to keep yourself from hitting it face-first. You turn around as fast as you can, just to be greeted by a fist to the face. Thinking it’s your father or someone else you know, you scuttle backwards until your back hits a wall. You’re cornered.

Blinking blood and tears out of your eyes you look up at your attacker and are surprised by seeing three faces you don’t recognize. This time you see the fist coming and put up your arms to soften the blow, pulling up your legs to protect your stomach. One of them keeps hitting your arms, the second one grips your hair to pull your head up, the third guy kicks you in the legs sideways. The second guy looks you in the face “What kind of freak are you?! Not even reacting to being hit…” he mumbles with disgust in his voice.

“YEA! SAY SOMETHING YOU FREAK” screams the first one, still hitting your arms.

“COME ON, WE WANT TO HEAR YOU BEGGING FOR MERCY!” laughs the third one, giving you a kick into the side.

Silent tears roll down your face as you bite the inside of your cheek to keep silent. Your parents made you go through so much worse. You look at the second guy, who still has a hard grip on your scalp, and give him a glare.

“What are you looking at me like that for?!” he sounds offended. “Don’t you DARE look at me like that, FREAK!” he’s screaming now too.

You were expecting more pain, the second guy maybe joining in to kick you in the sides but suddenly everything stopped. The three men are frozen in place as a deep and dark chuckle sounds from the darkness behind them. The voice it came from was so deep and raspy it almost sounded like growling. You’re terrified, to say the least.

“now, now. three guys teamin’ up on one little lady? seems hardly fair.” he chastises.

“WHAT! ANOTHER FREAK! GET AWAY BEFORE WE DECIDE TO TEAM UP ON YOU INSTEAD!” the first guy turned around and sounded like he was grinning. Apparently he thought he had the upper hand or something. You’ve yet to get a look at your savior which you don’t have to wait long for. 

The guys standing around you all make strangled noises of surprise before being flung against the wall to your right. About 15 feet in front of you stands a skeleton. You’d find it hard to tell if the magic flaring in his left eye socket wasn’t lighting up his whole face. His sharp, shark-like teeth are formed into a grimace, something between grin and frown. The gold tooth under his glowing eye glints in the cast glow. He's wearing a dark coat with fur trimming on the hood, a dark turtleneck-sweater and black track pants. Not the most menacing look, but it fits him, you think.

His focus is still on the men who attacked you and he forms a bone in his hand the size of a baseball bat, one end sharpened to look like an oversized toothpick. He grabs it like a spear and comes closer with big steps.

“humans like you **disgust** me.” he says quietly. You doubt he wanted to say it loud enough for anyone to hear but your senses were so focused on him that you couldn’t **not** pick it up. He gets even closer to the pile he created in the corner of the wall you sit against and the wall he slammed them into. You skid across the floor, away from the guys that attacked you and the monster that just saved you. You know what’s going to happen next. It would’ve happened to you a few days ago, had you stayed home.

The skeleton steps up to the pile of men and rears back the bone-spear in his hand as one of the guys screamed from underneath his two friends. The scream is way higher than you remember his voice being (from when he wanted to hear you beg for mercy). The bone-spear came down, piercing through all of the three men piled in the corner. You hear a sickening _crack_ of bones, flesh being slashed and blood trickling on the floor. The scream gives way to a gurgled sound, then stops.

The skeleton stands there a moment longer, being wary of turning his back to these men. He turns to you and you flinch. He blinks and the flaming light of his left eye disappears. In its stead there are two little red lights, one in each eye socket, now. He takes a step towards you and you skid away from him a little more, wary. He seems to sense your fear and crouches down in place instead.

“you okay, little lady?” he asks, concern lacing his voice, the lights of his eyes growing a little and shining just a tad bit brighter. His brow furrows (how does that work on a skull, you ask, despite yourself) and he stretches out a hand. You look at it with wide eyes, convinced he doesn’t want to hurt you. You look back to his face, the teeth now less of a grimace and formed more like a frown. Your gaze falling to the ground you let loose some tears of relief and shrug.

“can i come closer, i wanna see how badly they hurt’cha” he says quietly, unmoving as to not scare you again. You look back up at him and nod a little. Letting your legs slide down, you let your arms fall to your sides as the giant skeleton scuttles closer. You almost laugh at the display.

He gets close enough to put his hand on your cheek, it glows red for a moment before a warm feeling seeps into your face. You relax against the contact. He lets go after a moment and looks you over.

“are ya hurt anywhere else?” he mumbles. You shrug again, gripping the hem of your shirt and lifting it up over your waist. He sucks in a breath between his teeth, hissing at the sight of your red and purple skin.

“i’mma take that as a yes. i can’t heal that well, but i know someone who can. mind if i take you to her?” he searches your face and you look away for a moment, thinking about this. Deciding that no, you don’t mind being healed you look back at him and shake your head.

“so you okay with comin’ with?” he asks to make sure. You nod and look at him surprised when he gets closer to pick you up. You look around, your hair swishing around your face for a moment before looking up at him with wide eyes and your mouth open in a shocked 'o'-shape. He chuckles at that, a deep sound vibrating through his chest and your side.

“i’m too lazy to walk there, hold on tight” he grins properly for the first time and winks his left eye at you.

You feel like you're falling, reflexively you grip into the front of the skeleton’s turtleneck and (out of desperation) onto the ribs behind it too. He gives a surprised noise and looks down at you as the world around you shifts and you see a cream-colored ceiling above him. You look around panicked, with wide eyes and trembling hands.

“woah, calm down, little lady. it’s okay, i took a shortcut outta there” he tries to soothe you and pry your hands from his ribs. Seeing his efforts being futile he lets you hold onto him and carries you through a living room, there’s a fireplace, the walls are painted in the same cream color as the ceiling and the hardwood floor is dark. In front of the fireplace is a deep-red carpet. A dark-brown leather couch and a glass coffee-table are placed in the middle of the room, the (also dark-brown) armchair on the left side between couch and fireplace.

“hey tori, i need yer help for a sec” he calls out.

“What did you do this time, Sans” comes the voice of a woman out of a room you assume is the kitchen, as there are noises like pots being placed and picked up.

“i found three guys teamin’ up on this small lady and i need ya to take a look” he explains while putting you down on the sofa. He looks you in the face and you stare right back at him, wide eyes filled with subsiding panic. “ya need to let go, dollface.” he grins down at you. You realize what he meant and pull your hands back like his ribs burned them. He chuckles and turns around to greet the monster he called ‘Tori’ earlier. Leaning back to look around him you see a big, white-furred goat-monster emerge from the kitchen.

Queen Toriel? You look at her, surprised. You didn’t expect your savior to bring you to the queen. The news stated she’d be insane but looking at her now as she regarded the skeleton with a look before spotting you behind him, you wouldn't think of her as ‘insane’. 

Her eyes widened “SANS! Oh heavens what happened!” she calls out and rushes to push the skeleton - Sans? - out of the way to look you over.

“jus’ said three guys teamed up on ‘er” he says while stepping to the head-end of the couch, basically behind you.

“My child, can you tell me where they hurt you?” she asks you softly with her paws hovering over you.

You shake your head and instead raise your hand to point to the side of your right leg, pull your shirt over the right side of your waist again and let go in favor of showing her the bruises on your arms.

She gasps at the bruise on your waist “Oh stars, my child, you need to lay down”, a large paw presses to your cleavage to lay you down into the cushions of the couch and the throw pillows laying behind you. You obey and lay down, Sans now coming back into view. His grin looks strained and the lights in his eyes (you decide to call them eyelights) are small and dim, looking down at you. His brow is furrowed and his gaze switches between your face and Toriel’s paws pulling aside your shirt. You smile up at him with a thankful expression in your eyes, you hope he understands.

Toriel’s paw lit up with a green light and your look was pulled to the wound on your side to see it fading. Your eyes widen as it fades more and more until it's almost gone.

“Do you mind me asking you to leave the room, Sans?” she looks up at him. He startles and his gaze meets hers.

“why?” is the only thing he says before being stared at by Toriel with narrowed eyes. Her look flicks down to your leg and back up at his face, then she jerks her head into the direction of an open doorway (you assume that’s the hallway, there’s no other doors to this room). He seems to understand and as soon as he’s gone she turns back to you.

“You’ll need to get out of your trousers so I can take a look at your legs, little one”, Toriel says, settling your shirt back down. You nod and sit up to open your old pants and shrug them off. You don’t lie back down, seeing as your side is fine to bend now.

“Oh dear, what did they do to you?” she looks at your bruised leg with wide eyes, then up to search your face. You jerked your un-injured leg off the couch twice. 

“They kicked you?” 

Holding up one finger you nod 

“So, one of them did?” 

You nod again.

“What horrible creatures, torturing such a poor, innocent youth.” She mutters while getting to heal your leg. You just shrug, despite her not looking at you.

After Toriel took care of your leg (it was bruised at the calf and at the thigh), you put back on your pants and she calls in Sans again, as she heals up your arms.

“It was a good thing you were able to step in, Sans. Thank you for bringing her here.” Toriel said while getting to her feet. You look at him and nod with her words to emphasize the thank-you part.

He grins and says “shucks, little lady, no need to thank me. jus’ lookin’ fer justice ‘round these parts” while a little bit of red color rises to his zygomatic arches. Is he blushing?

“Well. She should be fine to go now, Sans.” at these words from Toriel you pale. But she doesn’t look at you.

“yea, thanks again tori” he answers as she turns around and leaves for the kitchen. He crouches down next to you. 

“you got a place you wanna go?”

You shake your head

“don’t you have a home?” he asks, sounding surprised.

You hesitate and shake your head again. He’s quiet for a moment and you look up at him to get a clue why. His brow is once again furrowed, mouth pulled into a frown and eyelights cast down to the cushions of the couch in thought. You wait a moment.

“ya… ya could come with me but i don’t know how my bro might react to a human in our home…” he seems hesitant to make the offer.

You don’t have any reason to return to your parent’s home and no desire to stay on the streets any longer than necessary, so why not go with this skeleton who saved your life and is offering to take you in? Some people might say ‘he’s a monster and can’t be trusted’ or that he might want to eat you but who goes the length he went to save you, just to hurt you again. So after a moment of contemplation you point to him and make an ok-sign with your hand before nodding.

His stance slackens, his shoulders sink with a soundless sigh, the crease in his brow disappears and his grin looks less strained. The eyelights grow and get brighter, too. He seems relieved. “'course it's okay with me. c’mon then, we don’ wanna make tori angry by overstaying our welcome” he says as he winks at you, stands up and holds out a hand for you to take to help you stand. You take it and as you get to your feet you realize just how big this guy is. He towers over you with what you think have to be 7 feet or something, still smaller than Toriel or several other monsters but bigger (and wider, now that you look at him) than normal humans.

He holds your hand and as he pulls on it you stumble into him, grabbing at his sweater with your free hand to not fall. He chuckles again, saying “hold on tight, but keep your hands outta my ribs this time, ‘kay?” He winks and puts his free hand on your back. You bury your face in the front of his turtleneck as the feeling of falling comes over you once more, but before you know it you got solid ground underneath your feet again. His hand from your back disappears and he lets go of your hand.

“we’re here, dollface” he announces. You blink slowly, turning your head out of his sweater to look around you. “i know it’s messy but my bro doesn’t clean my room. better he doesn’t see you yet. he’s prolly somewhere in the house, so better be quiet-“ he cuts himself off as if realizing something. 

“you’ve not said anything yet, you okay?” he asks as he looks down. You let go of his sweater, taking a small step back to not invade his personal space and nod.

“you sure?” he says, more insistent this time.

You nod again and shrug.

“that your thing?” he asks, quirking an ‘eyebrow’.

You look at him, into the little eyelights. His eyebrow goes back down and instead he furrows his brow at you. And you shrug again.

He snorts and laughs. “ah, well then, no need to worry about’cha bein’ loud then” he says as he winks at you and turns to the door.

“ya can sit down on the mattress if ya want. i’mma go get a snack.” he stops and turns to look over his shoulder “you want something too? and don’t’cha dare shruggin’ at me again” he says while grinning at you.

You give him an enthusiastic nod and, as if to emphasize, your stomach growls. You blush as he chuckles and goes to leave the room. “’kay. sit tight, i’ll be right back” he mutters as he closes the door behind him.

You turn to look at the room properly. There are piles of clothes, one or two more red turtlenecks like the one he’s wearing at the moment, lay on the floor, along with multiple track pants (also like the one he’s wearing; black with yellow stripes down the outsides of the legs). There are also socks everywhere. Just big, thick-knit, white socks. Everywhere. You wonder where one might get so many socks, or rather why, as you go to sit down on the mattress that’s sitting on the floor.

You hear screaming from downstairs and the low vibrating sound of Sans’ voice. Maybe that’s the not-so-glad brother he’s been talking about. You try not to think about it as Sans re-appears in the middle of the room. You startle and look up at him with wide eyes. He snorts at the look on your face and hands you the plate he’s holding. You take it with a thankful look and inspect what he’s brought you. It’s a bun and some cold-cuts. Your eyes light up and you put the cuts on the sliced bread. Almost digging in, you halt. Raising an eyebrow you look up at him and point at the food, then at him.

“oh, i got something, don’ worry. eat” he says, sits down next to you and pulls out a bottle of mustard. You stare at him as he goes to drink the condiment but stops to give you a sideways look. “what is it?” he asks, lowering the bottle.

You point to the mustard, then to your bun. He snorts again and chuckles as he gives you the bottle. You put some of it under the cold-cuts, close the bun and hand him the mustard again. This time you bite into the bun and sigh at having something proper to eat in your mouth.

“ya got good taste if ya like mustard” he laughs and returns to drink the condiment. You arch an eyebrow at him gulping the spicy sauce. He just shrugs as he sets the bottle down. 

“that’s my thing”, he says, winks at you and you chuckle at this. His ‘eyebrows’ shoot up, eyelights dilate, grin widens and zygomatic arches once again dust red as he listens to that.

“ya know, ya can stay ‘ere wit’ my bro ‘n me if ya want” he offers. You look at him, almost finished with the bun he brought you. Swallowing, you nod and smile at him. His blush spreads to underneath his eye sockets. 

“well, if ya do, then we hav’ta introduce ya to my bro. no way ya don’t run inta him while livin’ ‘ere” he says and you shrug again. “better not take that lightly tho’, he’s not quite… fond of humans, ya know?” Looking back up at him you nod, trying to convey something like:

“ _I get that. Me neither._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments for criticism always welcome!


	2. Papyrus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, Update-Sunday is here! So here's the second chapter! 
> 
> English isn't my first language so if there are mistakes, please tell me and I'll correct them!
> 
> Enjoy! ♥

After finishing your food, Sans looks at you expectantly. You look back, eyebrow raised and head tilted in question. “well… ya wanna go ‘n meet my bro?” he asks you hesitantly. His eye sockets widen and the eyelights shrink a little “wait. i don’t even know yer name…” he furrows his brow and thinks for a moment. You tap his forearm and when he looks down at you, you make a writing gesture with your left hand on the flat of your right hand.

“ya wanna write it down” it’s not a question, he gets up and walks over to his cupboard that sits against the wall opposite to the bed. Rustling through the top drawer he turns back to you with a pencil and paper in his right hand. After he gives it to you, you write down your name, nothing more.

He looks at the paper as you give it back to him and raises an eyebrow at the lack of any explanation. “so. yer gonna communicate with only gestures or what…” he lowers the paper to his side, still standing in front of you (basically in the middle of the room, considering his size and the lack of space in here). You shrug at him and he sighs, putting a hand over his face “this’s bound t’be excitn’… least pap won’ be able t’ complain ‘bout you bein’ noisy…” he drags his hand down, bone scraping on bone, making a little sound until his hand falls back to the side of his body.

“kay. c’mon then, no time like th’ present” he says, putting on his grin. You get up, nod at him and tilt your head to wait for him to lead the way. His eyelights dilate a bit more, brightening and he turns around. “jus’ stay behind me ‘til i’m finished talkin', yea?” he says with a glance over his shoulder. You nod at him again and he leads the way out of his room, across the hallway that looks out over the living room. You hear noises coming from the kitchen while following Sans down the stairs.

“hey pap” he calls out. “c’mere for a sec, will ya?” he asks and stops in front of the TV, between coffee table and couch. You see him straightening his shoulders, is he trying to look bigger? You barely finish the question in your head when you hear loud steps and hushed cussing coming into the room.

“WHAT IS IT NOW, YOU LAZYBONES? ARE YOU TOO TIRED TO HELP ME PREPARE DINNER? WHERE DID YOU DISAPPEAR OFF TO WITH THAT BREAD ANYWAYS.” his voice booms through the living room, you flinched at the sound and if he wasn’t asking questions like that you might think he’s angry. Stepping a little closer to Sans, you hold onto the back of his jacket with your right hand, closing the left one to a fist to rest on your sternum as if to calm your heartbeat. You take a silent breath.

“calm down. we have a guest, ‘s why i disappeared with it. she was hungry.” Sans states calmly.

“A GUEST! SANS!” Papyrus sounded indignant. “AND WHERE ARE YOU KEEPING >HER< IF I MIGHT ASK? I HOPE NOT IN THE MESS YOU CALL A ROOM!” You had to hold back a snort and giggle at that. Pulling on the jacket in your right hand a little to signal your amusement to Sans he just grunts at his brother.

“’f course i kept ‘er in my room, can’t exactly put’er in the livin’ room. before i introduce ‘er i need ta warn ya tho” he says in a placating manner.

“STOP PROCASTINATING AND SPEAK UP! WHAT DO YOU NEED TO WARN THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS ABOUT?!” Papyrus demands.

Sans winces “well. she’s a human”

Silence was the last thing you expected. Your hand on Sans’ jacket clenches onto the fabric tighter and you press a little further into him. He reaches around with his right hand just as you heard something.

Papyrus made a noise, something between laughing and disbelief “YOU… you. You Brought A Human Into Our Home? KNOWINGLY?” He does not. sound pleased. And that’s putting it lightly. Sans got a hold of your right arm, you pulled away until your hand was gripping onto his phalanges. He squeezed your hand lightly, his hand reaching halfway up your forearm, even sideways like this.

“yea i did. she’s harmless tho. i took out three cowards who teamed up on ‘er.” as he says it, he shifts in front of you, apparently Papyrus tried looking around his brother to see what he was hiding. “tori needed t’ heal her, was pretty banged up…” he explains, softer than before.

“WELL. If You Say So, Brother. But I Need To See For Myself Before Letting A Human Pass Me By In My Own House!” Papyrus says, in a more. Quiet voice. Something you could almost call an inside voice. It still sounds very commanding but that might just be him. You’re used to that tone.

“’f course bro. wait a sec.” Sans lets go of your hand and you obey in letting his fingers go as he turns in front of you to plop down onto the couch next to you. “there she is.” he says, using his hands to gesture towards you. You on the other hand just stand there, frozen; fidgeting with your hands in front of you. Papyrus makes a grunting sound, looking down at you. You raise one of your hands in a little wave to greet him.

“WELL. GREETINGS, SMALL HUMAN. SO YOU’RE THE HOUSEGUEST SANS WAS TALKING ABOUT. HOW LONG DO YOU INTENT TO STAY” he folds his arms and looks you up and down with an arched eyebrow.

You look at Sans to try and get help explaining your situation.

“y’see bro, she doesn’t have a place t’stay. so i thought of takin’ ‘er in.” after seeing the disapproving look on Papyrus’ face he rushes to say “sh-she could take care of some o’ the housework to take that off of yer shoulders!” He glances at you immediately after saying that, to check if that was even okay and you give a quick nod, turning back to Papyrus.

“SO SOMETHING LIKE A HOUSEMAID?” Papyrus concludes. You wince at the implication but force it down to smile up at the enormous, 8-, maybe 9-foot-tall monster, who was barely 7 feet away from you. You give him a big, reassuring nod. You’re used to cleaning and housekeeping. And with these two brothers it’s bound to be better than with your parents, anything is better than with your parents.

Sans perks up “so she can stay?”

“I SUPPOSE SO.” he glances at his brother before turning to you “WILL YOU HELP ME PREPARE DINNER THEN?” he asks. You don’t dare say no, so you nod eagerly and make a step forwards, standing in front of Sans, or rather between his legs, in front of the couch now. Papyrus makes an appreciative noise and turns on his heel, striding back into the kitchen. You turn to Sans, bouncing on your feet and smiling at him. Before he can answer or react in any way you rush to hug him around the neck, let go and storm after Papyrus into the kitchen. You don’t see the big blush that spreads horizontally over the middle of Sans’ face as you disappear behind the doorway.

“SO, SMALL HUMAN. I WAS PREPARING LASAGNA FOR DINNER AND YOU ARE ALLOWED TO WORK FOR THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS NOW. YOU’LL PROPERLY CUT THE INGREDIENTS AND I’LL PUT EVERYTHING TOGETHER.” Papyrus exclaims loudly. You wince at the volume and nod at his instructions. He places you at the kitchen table with a cutting board and a big, sharp knife. He also gives you a bowl of tomatoes that you are supposed to cut into cubes and put into another bowl. Being familiar with the task, you get to work, cutting them with practiced ease, getting rid of the stem-pieces and putting the finished cubes into the second bowl. After you’re done with the tomatoes, you knock on the table to signal Papyrus you’re done. 

“WHAT IS IT HUMAN, DO YOU NEED-“, he asks while turning around, interrupting himself as he caught sight of the finished bowl with his eyes (eye sockets? He doesn’t have eyelights like Sans does, it’s harder to read his expression like this, you decide). 

“OH. WELL THIS IS A PLEASANT SURPRISE.” He takes the bowl into his hand and inspects the cubes from up close, raising the bowl up to his face. “YOU CUT THEM ALL EXPERTLY.” he says while setting the bowl down next to his pot which you assume will contain the sauce later. 

“WELL DONE, BUT THIS IS NOT ENOUGH TO IMPRESS THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS YET!” He puts a fist up to his chest in a pose and clears his throat (how did he do that without a throat to clear?) 

“I ASSIGN YOU THE CUTTING WORK FOR THE REST OF THE INGREDIENTS. KNOCK AGAIN WHEN YOU’RE DONE, HUMAN.” He announces and turns his attention back to the stove. 

You both work in relative silence as you cut the rest like he told you to, while Papyrus makes the sauce and prepares the pasta-layers for the lasagna. He’s frying the minced meat in its own juices when you knock again.

“GREAT TIMING, SMALL HUMAN!” Is the only thing he says before holding out his hand backwards towards you, without turning around or even looking at you. You hand him the bowl and he pulls it up next to the stove to continue focusing on the meat. Your cutting work being done, you just sit at the table, swaying your legs back and forth with the chairs being taller than normal to fit monsters better.

As the sauce was finished and sits on the stove to simmer for a few minutes, Papyrus turns around and jumps, giving a sound of surprise “HUMAN! WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOUR TASKS ARE COMPLETE, YOU CAN JOIN MY BROTHER IN SLACKING OFF NOW!” He chastises you as he hurries you out of the kitchen. You stand in the entrance of the living room, perplexed at what just happened as Sans looks away from the TV to focus on you. He grins.

“what’s that look s’pposed to be? c’mon over ‘ere ‘n watch some stupid TV shows wit’ me.” he invites you with a pat on the sofa next to him. You hesitate for a moment before walking up to him, he still looks at you as you stop in front of the sofa.

“what? …what is it? don’ wanna watch stupid shows or don’ you wanna sit on the sofa wit’ me?” he grins up at you as you give a sound of distress and shake your head quickly. “well then sit your butt down ‘ere”, he laughs as he grabs you by your right wrist to pull you up next to him. Landing face first in the cushions that make up the back of the sofa you pull your right hand from Sans’ and place both your hands on the backrest to push yourself up.

You give him a sideways glance, eyes narrowed and eyebrows pulled down, with a little frown on your mouth. You huff out a breath before turning to sit properly next to him. He snorts at your display and pulls you up to sit against him. He just winks at you when you give him a wide-eyed look of surprise and focuses back on the TV. You settle down in the crook of his arm that he didn’t take away after pulling you in and get comfortable against his ribs. He’s not as pokey as you would’ve imagined a skeleton to be but maybe that’s just his sweater… or it’s the simple fact that he’s not a human skeleton but a monster resembling a skeleton. You’d have to remind yourself more often (which shouldn’t be very hard, considering his face looks nothing like a ‘skull’ in your books.).

Half an hour later Papyrus parades into the room, announcing that the food is almost done, he’d put the finished sauce and prepared pasta layers together and had everything in the oven now. It’d take maybe another half an hour before he’d have to check on it. He regards Sans with a long look that you can’t exactly place but while he does so, Sans’ arm around you stiffens a bit. Once Papyrus huffs and his gaze leaves his brother, the arm around you relaxes again, the hand on your side reaches from your hip almost up to your bra with the way he’s holding you there.

Papyrus places himself as far away from you as possible at the other end of the couch. You wonder if he does that to avoid you or stay as close to the kitchen as he can while sitting on the couch. You guess it’s a mix of both as you shift your focus up at Sans. You’re surprised to find him looking at you. Tilting your head you look into his eyelights. They’re a bit blurred around the edges, it looks like he isn’t focused on you but lost in thought. You keep your look trained on his eyelights until the edges begin to sharpen again and he seems to return to himself. He blinks once, twice, before his grin slackens and he regards you for a moment, shrugs at you and turns back to the TV. You giggle quietly at his shrug and turn back to the show that’s on.

The screen flickers for a moment before there’s a news report displayed on the screen. “We’re interrupting the program for an announcement of the local police station.” The layout of the report changes and there’s a picture of you on the right side next to the reporter. You gasp and grip for Sans’ turtleneck, trying to keep from grounding yourself by gripping his ribs. “The parents of this girl are looking for her for a week now, if you have any leads, contact the number on the screen as soon as possible, please.”, the news reporter says. Then the picture is displayed in full size across the screen with the number shown underneath. You start trembling and hide your face in Sans’ side, gripping into the fabric of his pullover.

He raises his arm a bit as to get a better look at you but you just bury yourself further between him and the couch as if to disappear from the face of the earth. Once he notices your trembling getting worse he puts his arm back down to pet your side. 

“ya know ya don’ hav’ta go back, right? i told ya to stay ‘ere as long as you need” he tells you in a quiet tone. Papyrus doesn’t say anything and you don’t know if he’s even looking at you. At the moment you don’t care about that and focus on the hand petting your side. It feels nice, being safe for once and your trembling eases up a bit. 

You look up at Sans and he searches your face with his eyelights, they’re small but bright, he seems worried with the way his brow is furrowed and the look he gives you. Letting go of his turtleneck you throw one arm across his chest, keep yourself up with the other and cuddle into his ribs. He seems to deflate, letting out a silent sigh and pulls you up with both his arms to hug you.

In this moment, with being away from home and hugging this skeleton, you _feel_ safe. More than you remember ever being in these past years.

Papyrus clears his throat loudly and you don’t move a lot aside from turning your head a bit to regard him out of the corner of your eye. Sans stiffens underneath you but doesn’t let go of you just yet.

“THE LASAGNA IS FINISHED. YOU TWO CAN STOP DOING WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND JOIN THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS FOR DINNER! IN THE KITCHEN!”, he gestures widely and turns around to disappear in the kitchen. Was he blushing? You turn your look back to see Sans’ face lit up like a lightbulb. You can’t help but snort at the sight. He seems to wake from wherever his thoughts went and looks down at you in his arms. You nuzzle his chest before letting go and shoving his arms out of the way to get up. They fall away easily and once you’re up on your feet you turn to offer him a hand to ask him to join you for dinner. 

He shakes his head and the blush in his face lessens. “’m comin’ sweetheart” he says while getting up by himself. He didn’t take your hand but that might just be the fact that he’d have pulled you onto the sofa again before you could even try and help to pull him up (considering his towering height). You blush at the nickname but quickly turn around to walk to the kitchen. Papyrus has already set the table and is taking the lasagna out of the oven the moment you walk in. He puts it down in the middle of the table.

“THE LEFT PLACE THERE IS FREE FOR YOU TO SIT DOWN, SMALL HUMAN.” he explains while sitting down diagonally across from you. That leaves the seat next to you free for Sans where the smaller of the skeletons sits down once you’re seated.

The meal is pretty un-eventful. That might be because of Papyrus having a presence that demands quiet or his glares every time when Sans tries to speak up. The silent exchanges between the two take your mind off of the fact that your parents are, in fact, looking for you. For whatever reason you don’t know. It’s probably because they want their house-elf back. But you’re a free elf now.

Papyrus leaves the kitchen after you’ve assured him multiple times that 'no, you don’t mind doing the dishes'. Grumbling, he disappears upstairs, to his room you guess. Sans stays in the kitchen with you. While you wash the dishes in the hot, soapy water and rinse the bubbles off, Sans takes the things from your hands to dry them and put them in their respective places in the cupboards. You’re thankful that he’s not leaving you alone after being your anchor while watching the news report on you. Though you know the looming conversation about your parents and your reaction is inevitable.

So after the dishes are done and Sans put the rest of them away, he gives you a look with his small and almost dim eyelights. His grin is slack and he searches your face. “ya mind… explainin’ what happen’ there? on the news i mean.” he asks while leaning back on the counter. He’s trying to give you some space, the kitchen isn’t very big and he doesn’t want to corner you. You appreciate it.

You heave a sigh. After thinking for a bit you look at him with your brow furrowed. You point upwards.

“ya. ya wanna go back to ma room?” he seems surprised, his eyelights brightening but staying the same size and his eyebrows rising.

You nod and turn halfway to make him lead the way again. He slips past you and silently walks up the stairs with you following closely behind him. Once in his room he stays by the door to close it behind you. You sit down on the mattress moments before he does.

“so?” he prompts.

You furrow your brow once more, thinking about how you’re going to explain it to him without saying it outright. You remember writing down your name and look up at him. He seems to startle out of his own thoughts when your eyes find his eyelights. You motion with your left hand writing on the flat of your right again.

“well, if yer fine with havin’ physical proof of whatever it is ya wanna tell me…” he mutters while getting up to give you the writing utensils again. You shrug your shoulders and he barely covers up a snort.

You start writing. It takes you one or two minutes and a few suppressed tears but you get the barebones of it down on the paper. While knawing on your bottom lip, you hand him the paper, face-down. He raises an eyebrow when you decide to inspect the carpet in lieu of watching him read it.

He soon understands why. Your hand shivered while writing, he can tell by the way the letters are sometimes illegible but the words still make enough sense.

“So, I ran away from home. I’m guessing you thought as much. My parents were nice people once but the recent years were different. They screamed at me, had me do all the housework and when they disliked the way I did it, they hit me. Struck me with books, cooking utensils, the shoehorn, anything they could quickly grab. When my dad grabbed the baseball bat a week ago I ran for my life. Probably literally…”

By the end of your little confession, Sans crumples the paper with his right hand and closes his eyes. You could see him clenching his jaw and his hands trembling. You put your hand on his forearm and feel the bones underneath the fabric of his turtleneck shift as he relaxes a little. You look up at him to see that he’s opened his eyes again, both sockets completely empty, his brows above are pulled together and raised. If you had to guess you’d think he’s scared to look you in the face. Considering the revelation you just laid on him, you’re not surprised.

The eyelights reappear a moment later, small and dim. You tilt your head at him and he throws the paper across the room, earning a startled yelp from you. You sit up straight, scared to be hit again but Sans just turns and has his hands hovering around your shoulders. You look at him. His smile looks small and strained, apologetic you’d guess. His eyebrows are still raised and furrowed and his eyelights search your face in question.

You realize what he’s asking for and throw your arms around his neck as an answer. He holds you close while you burrow your face in the crook of his neck, between his right clavicle and cervical vertebrae. As you cry silently, he pets your back slowly with one of his enormous hands and you feel the sharp tips catch on the material of your shirt a few times.

You don’t remember falling asleep. The only thing you do remember before your world turns dark from exhaustion and sleep deprivation is Sans repeating a single, short sentence like a mantra.

“ _you’re safe here._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Criticism always welcome! 
> 
> If you wanna have some specific scenes, tell me about it!  
> This wasn't planned to be longer than a one-shot so I'm wearing thin on ideas  
> (still have some things in mind for maybe 2 or 3 more chapters, but y'know.)


	3. Life in the house of the Skele-Bros

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update-Sunday is here, it's 40°C outside, maybe more in my apartment, yay!
> 
> Have some fluff with these guys and enjoy!

You wake up in the morning, feeling more rested than you remember from the last few weeks. You realize that you told Sans about the things that happened with your parents last night and don’t remember falling asleep. Looking around yourself you see that you’re still in Sans’ room, more specifically: you’re laying on top of him. Your torso is resting on his and your lower half is splayed across his midsection where you’d expect a human’s belly. Shoving the curiosity aside you try to get up, only to find his arms crossed on your back. You huff out a breath in annoyance and decide to poke his face until he lets you go.

You look at his sleeping face. His grin was ever-present on his skull but smaller and more relaxed than when he’s awake. You pull out your arm from where it’s resting against his ribs and reach up to poke him. His cheek has a little give underneath your finger, which surprises you. It’s not as soft as skin or flesh, you’d rather compare it to soft rubber erasers. You enjoy the feeling of it and poke him again, this time earning a low grumble that comes from his chest and vibrates through your torso. You giggle quietly at his face scrunching up and poke him again. His right eye socket opens a little and the eyelight that looks at you blearily is bigger than you remember it being.

Thinking about it, his eyelights seem to be a good indicator to what he’s feeling. You decide to pay closer attention to them to learn more about reading Sans’ expressions.

“mornin’ sweetheart” he mumbles.

You smile up at him and use your free arm to shove at his arm playfully.

“ya wanna get up already?” he asks while blinking both his eye sockets, the eyelights returning to the size you remember from watching TV with him last night. You theorize that this is his normal, resting expression. Nodding at him you pat his arm again and he obliges, letting you go.

You stand up and head to the door, halting in the middle of the room. You turn to look at Sans with big eyes. “mh? what?” he asks.

You look down at yourself and tug at your shirt, looking back up at him again. “ya need clothes?”, he guesses, only to be answered with a nod. He sighs and gets up with a groan. Walking over to his dresser he opens the third drawer and pulls out a black shirt with white writing that says ‘I do not care’, but the ‘do not’ is a picture of a donut. You giggle at the pun and take it from his hand while he sifts through the drawer and comes up with one of his track pants. You wonder how many he has of those. Probably not as many as his abundance of white socks.

You smile up at him and nod once to say ‘thank you’ and turn for the door. Stopping, you turn again to see him walking back to the mattress. He catches you looking at him with your head tilted.

“i think i’mma sleep s’more. you do you but don’ leave th’ house.” he mutters and lies down again, closing his eye sockets. You turn and leave the bedroom, closing the door behind you quietly. Realizing you don’t know where the bathroom is you take a look around. 

There are 3 doors on this floor, the one you just come from, one with caution tape and a do not enter sign on it (which you assume is Papyrus’ room) further down the hall towards the staircase. The last door is in the other direction, at the end of the hallway. You decide this has to be the bathroom and walk over, only for its door to open and reveal a clean Papyrus standing in front of a cloud of steam. He must’ve showered.

“OH. GOOD MORNING SMALL HUMAN. I HAD NOT EXPECTED YOU TO BE UP THIS EARLY. WHICH IS AGAIN, A PLEASANT SURPRISE. GET READY FOR THE DAY, I’LL ASSIGN YOU YOUR TASKS ONCE YOU’RE DOWNSTAIRS. I’LL BE IN THE KITCHEN” he declares in a loud voice. You’re almost used to his volume by now, but concerned about Sans waking up from his brother screaming at the top of his non existent lungs. You nod up at him and he stalks around you towards the staircase. 

As soon as he’s out of sight you sigh and turn to go into the bathroom. The steam has almost completely dissipated by now and the mirror is clear. You look at yourself. Your hair is more of a crow’s nest, you still have some blood in the tips of it that’re close enough to the wound Sans had healed. Your eyes are red and you realize that you smell from not having showered in over a week. Scrunching up your nose in slight disgust at yourself you strip your clothes and throw them in the hamper next to the bathtub. 

You put ‘washing clothes’ on your to-do list for today, seeing as the hamper is almost full and thinking of all the clothes laying around on Sans’ floor. As you step into the shower/bathtub combo and turn on the warm water you let out a sigh. It feels amazing, having the water wash away the dirt and sweat. You spot a shampoo bottle in the wall-mounted holder and wonder why a household of skeletons has shampoo in their bath. In favor of cleaning yourself, you shove the thought away for later.

You comb through your hair with your fingers while rinsing the rest of the shampoo out. Maybe the skele-bros also have a comb or hairbrush somewhere? You’d look after drying off and dressing. Continuing with rubbing your hands over your body in an attempt to clean off with the remnants of the shampoo you think back to last night’s events. Sans seemed angry at your note but when he looked at you he looked regretful. Before he threw it, his sockets were completely empty. You wonder what the empty sockets mean expression-wise and decide to watch him for when his eyelights may disappear again.

Deeming yourself clean enough you step out of the shower and pull out a big towel from the shelf opposite of the hamper. It’s so big you could wrap yourself two times over with the thing. You guess it’s because the brothers (or rather monsters in general) are so big that they need not only special furniture but utensils for cleaning and… dressing too. Your eyes wander to the clothes Sans gave you. The shirt looks like it wouldn’t fit him, as it’s too small. It fits you almost perfectly, just sagging a bit and hanging down to your mid-thighs.

The shorts have draw-strings, luckily. If they didn’t, they would slip off of your thin frame every two steps you’d take. Wearing shorts without underwear underneath feels weird to say the least but you’d have to take it until your stuff is clean. Deciding you’d better get going before Papyrus comes looking for you, you put the used towel into the hamper as well and step out of the bathroom.

You announce your arrival in the kitchen with a knock to the wooden doorframe. Papyrus stands at the stove, cooking pancakes. The table was set for you and him. You point to the table, then upwards with a questioning tilt of your head.

“SANS THAT LAZYBONES WILL SLEEP FOR ANOTHER HOUR OR TWO. HE CAN MAKE HIMSELF SOMETHING ELSE ONCE HE DECIDES TO GET UP.” Papyrus explains and puts the last finished pancake on a plate before placing them in the middle of the table. “LET’S HAVE BREAKFAST FIRST. THEN YOU CAN START DOING THE LAUNDRY. THE HAMPER SHOULD BE FULL, NOW THAT YOU CLEANED YOURSELF AS WELL.” he says as he sits down and begins to serve himself pancakes. He eats them with a little piece of butter on top, you decide to eat them with syrup.

Once breakfast is over, Papyrus does the dishes while shooing you out of the kitchen. The washing machine and dryer are in a little niche-room underneath the staircase. You got the hamper from the bathroom and make three piles in front of the machines; blacks, whites and colors. You put in the whites first, because your underwear is among those. The washing machine starts and you close the little door behind you.

You pick up the hamper and walk up the stairs into Sans’ bedroom. He’s still asleep when you close the door to his room behind you. As you start picking up the socks, putting them into the hamper you’re holding at your side, you start humming absentmindedly. You don’t notice Sans waking up, neither do you notice him staring at you while you pick up the track pants spread on the floor. As you reach for the socks near the bed you notice the glow of Sans’ eyelights.

Surprised, you rear back and gasp quietly, then proceed to look at him disapprovingly. “mhhh, what?” he grins up at you.

“can’t i enjoy yer singin’? what’re ya so surprised about?” he asks while sitting up.

You pout, blush at his compliment and bend down again to pick up the socks you reached for before he scared you. He sits on the bed cross-legged, still looking with big, brightly glowing eyelights. The grin on his face is big and seems genuine with the way his sockets are pushed upwards, creasing at the outer edges. You mark the attributes ‘bright’ and ‘big’ with the emotion of happiness or contentment until further notice.

After smiling at him and shaking your head, you pick up the remaining pieces of clothing littering the floor (namely the second turtleneck, two more track pants and a few more socks) and go to leave the room again. Sans stops you by calling out your name. You stiffen and turn your head to give him a scared look. He halts and his eyelights shrink, still brightly glowing.

“sorry, should i not call out to ya with yer name?” he asks quietly, walking up to you and reaching out for your head. You turn fully and close the distance between his hand and your head so he can pet you. Sighing, you shrug and marvel at the feeling of his rough phalanges stroking over your scalp. You make an appreciative noise, close to a purr, and smile up at him before turning around with the hamper under your arm and proceed to walk out of the door, heading for the laundry niche again. Sans follows close behind you and heads for the kitchen when you turn to walk parallel to the staircase.

Once you’re done putting Sans’ clothes with the separated piles in the laundry-room you go to sit on the couch to wait for the washing machine to finish its first course of the day. Sans joins you about half an hour later and you watch him walking over to you.

“pap’s gone to work already. you doin’ laundry today?” he asks while sitting down next to you, in the same place where he was yesterday. You nod up at him and study his face. His grin looks normal, in the way you know it by now, his brows resting at a normal angle above his eye sockets and his eyelights are slightly bigger than his resting expression.

“what is it, sweetheart? i got somethin’ on ma face?” he grins at you. You blush, look at the turned off TV and shake your head a little. He chuckles and pulls you up to his right side again, grabbing onto your side with his right hand. It rests there once you’re shoved against his ribcage once more and you feel him relax next to you. He grabs the remote with his left hand and turns on the TV to zap through the programs, looking for something worthwhile.

Snuggled up next to Sans on his couch is starting to become your favorite pastime. Once you hear the washing machine beeping to signal it’s done with the course, you try to get up. The big, skeletal hand that was resting on your side now grabs onto you once more to hold you back.

“where d’ya think yer goin’, sweetheart?” Sans asks with an undertone in his voice that you can’t quite place. It doesn’t seem like he’s upset with the way he’s grinning down at you. You gesture to the laundry room with a jerk of your head.

“oh, i heard it, don’t’cha worry…” he trails off and the hand on your side gives a little twitch. You jerk at this. You’re ticklish there. Sans’ grin widens and his eyelights dilate a little while brightening. 

Oh no.

Your eyes widen and you give him a terrified look while he just sits up and looms over you with an impossibly wide grin. You shake your head and try to pry his hand off of your side. He just chuckles at your attempt to get out of his grasp. The hand twitches again and you give a little shriek, jerking away from it uselessly.

“now, now sweetheart. no need to **jump** outta yer skin…” he punctuates his pun with another twitch of his hand, resulting in you jerking to the side once more and he chuckles again. He seems pleased with himself. You look at him in disbelief. His eyelights are almost as big as they were when you caught him staring at you while picking up his clothes.

You laugh, out of pure disbelief at the pun he made and the feeling of relief that he’s apparently not going to tickle you outright. You’re still chuckling a little when you finally look up at him again. He lets you go and his eyelights get even brighter. You shake your head and finally get up to tend to the laundry.

The rest of the day is uneventful. You change the charges of the washing machine and the dryer every hour or two and sit around with Sans, watching TV and lazing around. This seems to be his normal routine because when Papyrus comes home and goes to prepare dinner, he calls you in again to help him once more.

“YOU’RE FAR MORE HELPFUL AND SPEEDIER THAN THE USELESS SACK OF BONES THAT CALLS HIMSELF THE BROTHER OF THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS.”, Papyrus had said.

Sans doesn’t tell Papyrus about the situation with your parents. At least not while you’re in earshot. You hope that they won’t make any hasty decisions regarding your… family situation.

You follow Sans upstairs to sleep in his room again when he stops in front of his door.

“is this gonna be yer new routine? sleepin’ in ma room?”, he asks while smirking over his shoulder, looking down at you with big and brightly glowing eyelights. You just shrug and he snorts at that. He luckily turns back around before you feel the heat rise in your cheeks, making you blush. You hadn’t thought about it like that but you’re a grown up woman, sleeping ‘over’ in a man’s room. Pretty closely too.

You shake your head to get rid of the thought and look up to see Sans, standing in his room, beside his door; holding it open for you again. “well then le’s go to bed.” he mumbles while looking away from you.

So you sleep in Sans’ room once more, though this time doesn’t include sleeping **on top** of him. You actually lay in bed, awake and listening to his light snoring tonight; thinking about what you’re going to do with your living situation. The skele-bro’s house doesn’t have a guest room and you can’t keep intruding on Sans’ privacy by sleeping in his room with him all the time. You could sleep on the couch but that’d be ‘intolerable’ by Papyrus’ standards of having a houseguest.

Sans suddenly shifts in his sleep. You shoot a glance at the alarm clock on top of the dresser. It’s well past 3 A. M.

He starts growling and you feel a growing buzz in the air. You see a glow coming from his left eye socket, like the time he saved you in that alleyway. Realizing he must be having a nightmare, you sit straight up and turn to shove into his shoulder. When he doesn’t react to that by waking up but rather by trying to catch your hand clumsily in his sleep, you decide to take more drastic measures.

You move to sit on top of his ribcage and shake both his shoulders frantically. His growling grows louder and he catches you by your upper arms with both his enormous hands. His eye sockets open, only to reveal that the right one is empty and the left one is brightly lit with a fuzzy eyelight, flickering like a fire in the darkness of the room. Sans sits up, a tight grip on your arms, making you squirm and fall backwards between his legs.

You realize once more just how **big** Sans actually is. With his easy-going and usually casual demeanor it never occurred to you that he is, in fact, very much capable of squashing you. 

Pinning you down by your arms he growls deeply, the sound sends shivers down your spine and you stare into his brightly lit, fuzzy eyelight. This is when you realize.

He doesn’t see you. He isn’t seeing **you**. 

He is still caught up in that nightmare, the fuzziness of the eyelight telling you just how far gone he is from you right now. So you decide to try and take action.

You start moving your arm but once he notices the movement, the grip on your arm tightens more and the growl gets louder again. Scared that he might break a bone in your arm if you try that again, you decide to just wait for a moment. Aside from pinning you down, he hasn’t done anything but hold you there and growl at you. 

Searching his face with your eyes you make a questioning sound and tilt your head the way you do when asking a question. He flinches. The light in his eye sharpens and shrinks, the flame dying down and disappearing. The light in his other eye socket returns slowly and once they both reach the same size, they are smaller and a lot dimmer than normal. It might just be the fact that the flame in his eye socket made you overstimulated for the brightness but you’re sure they’re much dimmer than normal.

You tilt your head into the other direction, repeating the sound you made. His brow furrows in what you assume is guilt when he lets go of your arms as if you’d burned him.

“oh s-stars, sorry s-sweetheart. i-“ he stammers. Swallowing and backing away from you further he starts again “i’m sorry sweetheart, a-are ya hurt?”

You shake your head ‘no’ and sit up again. Once you catch his eyes with yours you tilt your head once more.

“y-yea. just got **rattled** by that nightmare…” he mumbles and trails off. You snort at the pun and his eyes snap back to yours. Seeing the mirth in your expression he slumps down and starts relaxing. “and yer sure yer not hurt…” he asks again.

You nod at that, patting your right arm with your left hand to show him it doesn’t hurt.

Sans and you sit there in silence for a moment. You break it by scooting a little closer to him, to grab his attention, and hold out your arms with your head laid to the side. He breathes out sharply through his nasal cavity and takes you up on your offer, pulling you up to him and hugging you tightly but careful to not hurt you.

You wrap your arms around his neck and snuggle into the spot from last night, between his right clavicle and cervical vertebrae. Pushing into him by using your position on your knees as leverage he makes a questioning noise before he gets what you’re trying to do and budges, laying down with you on top of him.

“comfy?” he mumbles, barely holding on to consciousness. You sigh and nod into his shoulder, nuzzling him. He gives a low and sleepy chuckle and you both drift off to sleep.

When you wake up, it’s again, on top of Sans. His arms are once again slung around you comfortingly and your lower body perched on his… stomach? Skeletons don’t have organs and stuff, that’s why they’re skeletons, so why are you not hanging off of his ribcage? Now that you think about it, his clothes always look like they’re not hanging over nothing.

Your curiosity willing you to satisfy it, you move your arms from around Sans’ ribcage and down his sides. Your hands almost reach their destination as the arms around you jerk and tighten their grip on you gently. Looking up you see Sans’ amused expression, eyelights blown wide and a big grin on his face.

“gett’n **handsy** there, sweetheart. what’cha doin’?” he asks. You giggle at his pun and pat his arm in the same gesture from last morning, signaling him to let you up. He grants you your wish and lets go to see what you’re planning.

You sit back on his femurs and poke your stomach, then move to point at his ‘stomach’.

He sits up too. “yer askin’ me what’s under my shirt? isn’t that second base, i hadn’t realized we were doin’ this” he says while grinning down at you. You blush at his innuendo and shake your head vigorously. 

“ahw, c’mon. i’m jus’ **rib** bin’ ya. there’s nothin’ under there. jus’ bones. nothin’ interestin’.” he vaguely explains. You look up at him and narrow your eyes, repeating the gestures by poking your stomach and pointing at his.

He looks away. “why’re ya so interested in a pile ‘o bones anyways.” You gasp and his head turns to you just in time to see you throwing your arms around his neck. You bury your face in the crook of his neck again and he sighs while wrapping his arms around you.

“ _alright, alright. i’ll show ya, but not now, ‘kay? breakfast first, paps will come get us if we’re not up by nine._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Critique always welcome!
> 
> If you spot any mistakes, let me know! ♥


	4. Confrontations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have a little time with Papy and Shopping time with Sans :3
> 
> Hope you enjoy, let me know if you find any mistakes! ♥

Once Sans and you have had breakfast, Papyrus pulls you aside. You look at him questioningly with your head tilted to the side.

“SO, SMALL HUMAN. AS SANS HAS TOLD ME ON YOUR FIRST NIGHT IN THIS HOUSE, HE FOUND YOU WHILE BEING BEATEN UP BY THREE LOWLY HUMANS, IS THAT CORRECT?” he asks while leading you out back, to the backyard.

You nod up at him when he looks at you for confirmation, then you look down at your feet, standing next to him on the back porch. 

“WELL, THEN YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS, SMALL HUMAN.” he says while doing a small pose with his fist at his chest. You tilt your head at him again and shake it a little. He huffs out a breath.

“THIS MEANS THAT I, THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS, WILL GRANT YOU THE PRIVILEGE OF TRAINING WITH ME!” he announces triumphantly. You stare at him. “DO NOT GIVE ME THAT LOOK, SMALL HUMAN. YOU WILL TRAIN WITH ME SO THIS DOESN’T HAPPEN TO YOU AGAIN. NOW GO AHEAD AND GET INTO POSITION.” Papyrus says while walking away from you. When he’s about 10 feet away from you, he turns around and holds out one of his hands to you.

You feel a pull at your chest, as if someone tied a string to your sternum and tugs at it. The sensation grows more intense fast and releases a small, dark-purple heart from your chest with a soft noise. You stare at it.

“THIS, SMALL HUMAN, IS YOUR SOUL. THE CULMINATION OF YOUR VERY BEING, EMOTIONS, MEMORIES AND BELIEFS ALL CONDENSED IN THIS TINY HEART IN FRONT OF YOU.” Papyrus explains. You look up at him with wide eyes. If this heart is everything you are, shouldn’t it stay inside you where it’s safe? Why did he pull it out if it’s so important!

“don’ worry, sweetheart. monsters use their magic in confrontations ‘n fights, which’s basically just extensions of ‘r souls. humans arn’t made of magic, it’s why we hav’ta pull the souls outta them ta do our thing.” Sans explains from the back porch behind you. When did he decide to show up?

“paps over there is really good at limiting his magic output, he won’t hurt’cha” he says and winks at you, the eyelights in his sockets are slightly bigger and brighter than normal, so you’re not sure how confident he actually is in his words. You believe him anyways and turn back around to see Papyrus tapping one of his feet.

“ARE YOU DONE INTERRUPTING THIS TRAINING NOW, SANS? YOU LAZYBONES WON’T DO IT, SO I, THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS, TOOK IT UPON MYSELF TO TEACH YOUR SMALL HUMAN SOME SELF DEFENSE.” Papyrus scolds his brother and huffs. You blush a little at your title and play it off by nodding at him, so he can continue.

“GOOD. SO NOW THAT WE ARE IN A CONFRONTATION, I WILL SUMMON MY MAGIC. IT WILL MANIFEST IN BONES. I WILL THEN ATTACK YOU. YOU HAVE TO DODGE THE BONES IN ORDER TO ESCAPE THE DAMAGE YOUR SOUL WOULD TAKE FROM THEM.” Papyrus further explains to you.

You nod at this and prepare to bolt to the side when he throws his hand up in the air. Bones shoot from the ground and slide towards you. They are high enough to be too hard to jump over, so you dodge to the side, out of their path. The bones disappear back into the ground, barely missing the porch. Papyrus nods and gestures with his hand; several bones materialize around him, sharpened at one end to resemble arrows. They remind you of the big bone-spear Sans had back in the alley.

You focus back on the bone-arrows the moment they are flung in your direction. You duck and roll out of their way, the sharp ends barely missing your back and sinking into the ground where you were standing just a moment before. A little sweat starts to build at your brow, if those hit you, you’d bleed out fast. You turn back to Papyrus and barely see the next attack coming at you before the bone hits your soul.

You didn’t expect the sensation of burning pain to spread throughout your whole body, so you slump to the ground with a gasp of pain.

“ARE YOU OKAY TO CONTINUE, SMALL HUMAN?” Papyrus asks from his spot in front of you. You look up at him and nod, getting back up to your feet. You could take some pain. This is nothing. He nods approvingly before casting another wave of bones protruding out of the ground at you. This time you could jump over them. Jumping over, you notice he also materialized more bone-arrows and flings them at you the moment you touch the ground. You roll to the side again, dodging all of the arrows.

You’re covered in grass and dry leaves already but Papyrus doesn’t let up. He forces you to dodge over the whole expanse of the backyard, hitting your soul with some more bone-arrows and tripping you with more ground-bones. You’re out of breath and panting by the time he declares the training to be finished for the day. It’s about noon by now.

“YOU DID WELL FOR YOUR FIRST TRAINING WITH THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS, SMALL HUMAN. ARE YOU IN NEED OF HEALING?” he asks while coming over, offering a hand to stabilize you. You take his hand and nod, looking up at him with a small smile to thank him.

Pulling you along with him back into the house, he sets you down on the couch again. “STAY HERE, I WILL GET YOU SOME MONSTER FOOD. IT WILL HEAL YOUR WOUNDS AND GIVE YOUR STAMINA A LITTLE BOOST FOR THE REST OF THE DAY.” he says to you, then turns around and disappears in the kitchen.

“ya did pretty well for trainin’ with him fer the first time” Sans says, appearing behind the couch. You turn your head to regard him with an exhausted huff.

“bein’ **winded** after all that dodging ‘s normal. eat the stuff he’ll bring ya, it’ll help.” Sans says with a wink and sits down next to you. Papyrus comes back into the living room, some type of candy in his hand. You look up at him with your head tilted.

“THIS IS MONSTER CANDY. EAT SOME, YOU TOOK DAMAGE FROM BEING HIT BY MY ATTACKS. IT WILL HEAL THE HP OF YOUR SOUL AND CLOSE THE WOUNDS ON YOUR BODY.” Papyrus explains to you while handing you the candy. He then goes back into the kitchen. You’d have to ask about the video-game-like terms he kept using today sometime.

The candy looks like normal sweets and when you pop it into your mouth it dissolves fast, leaving behind a feeling like eating pop rocks. Your face scrunches up at the feeling and you hear Sans chuckle next to you. When you look at him he just gives you a shrug.

“seein’ humans eat monster food fer the first time is hilarious, what can i say” Sans says while looking you up and down. “fascinatin’ ta see the wounds close up too”

You look down at your exposed arms to see the cuts close and disappear without leaving scars. Gasping you turn your arm and look up at Sans with big eyes. He laughs outright this time. “no need ta be so excited, sweetheart. it’s jus’ monster food.”

You shake your head at him and point at some of your old scars. His brow drops and his grin falls into an almost-frown, his eyelights shrinking down to small slits. They glow brightly and he growls. You don’t remember an expression like this and you lean away from him subconsciously.

“yer parents really did a number on ya, didn’t they.” he says lowly while looking over your scar covered arms. You shrug hesitantly and lean forwards, hiding your arms underneath your torso while looking into Sans’ eyelights. He seems to snap out of it, the eyelights returning to their normal size and glow after blinking his sockets a couple of times.

“sorry. it jus’ strikes a nerve, y’know?” Sans apologizes and rubs one of his hands over the back of his skull with a small sound. Papyrus comes back into the living room.

“SANS I NEED YOU TO GO TO THE STORE.” he says, heading for the door.

“an’ where’re you goin’, boss?” Sans asks with an annoyed tone in his voice.

“I AM MEETING UP WITH UNDYNE. WHICH IS WHERE I WILL BE FOR THE REST OF THE NIGHT AND UNTIL TOMORROW. IT IS BATTLE RESEARCH NIGHT AND DOCTOR ALPHYS WILL BE THERE TOO, SO I CANNOT BE LATE.” Papyrus exclaims, the door already open. “DON’T MAKE OUR HOUSEGUEST EAT THE GREASY FAST FOOD YOU ALWAYS EAT WHEN I’M OUT, SANS! GO AND GET SOME PROPER FOOD!” and with that the door closes with a ‘bang’. Sans sighs next to you.

“’battle research’ he says. what he actually means is anime-night” Sans tells you with a snort. “whatever. let’s jus’ go to the store. the faster we go, the faster we’re back too.” he says while getting up.

You get up and tap his arm before pointing at your borrowed clothes and back upstairs. “yea, go change. i’ll wait.”

You come back downstairs dressed in your old clothes. Sans looks you up and down “i think we should git you som’ new clothes too, huh…” You look down at yourself and give him a shrug. He snorts and says “yea we do. c’mon. we’ll git you clothes, then the food.”

You follow Sans out the door. It’s the first time you see the brothers' house from the outside, you’re in the monster-neighborhood of your city. The few monsters that were allowed into separate cities tend to stick together, so they almost always live at the outskirts of town in their own little neighborhoods.

Walking down the street you notice that, because you’re so far away from the city center, there are no humans anywhere. Sans leads the way towards a more crowded district, heading for a mall for humans. When you arrive at the mall, the humans turn their heads and stare brazenly at Sans. The moment they notice you, their looks grow sour and they turn away.

You pull at Sans’ sleeve to make him look at you and jerk your head at the people around you with your brow furrowed in worry. He shrugs and takes your hand (or rather, half of your forearm) to pull you along into one of the clothing shops. You stumble after him and regain your composure once he stops inside.

“go and git some sets o’ clothes, i’ll pay once yer done, don’t worry about the price, kay?” he mutters and sits down on one of the provided chairs. You look around yourself for a moment, then back at him with your brow furrowed. “yea, git what ya want. don’ worry ‘bout it” he shoos you with one of his hands, the other resting at the back of his neck. You sigh and look around again, this time seeking out something you’d like to wear.

You get yourself three pairs of pants, some shirts, a thick jacket for the coming winter and a few pairs of socks and underwear in white and black respectively. Returning to Sans with the clothes piled on your arm you find him sleeping there. You raise your hand to tap him on the shoulder and he catches it with one of his so fast you gasp a little in surprise.

“oh, ‘s jus’ you…” he mutters and yawns. This gives you a look inside of his mouth, which is (surprise, surprise) empty. You expected something to be there, though you couldn’t say what.

“so, ya done?” he asks, looking up at you from his slouching position in the chair with wide, glowing eyelights. You think you see them flicker a little, apparently trying to change shape? You shove the thought aside in favor of nodding at his question.

“good.” he says while standing up “give it here, i’ll pay fer it, then we go get some food fer tonight”. Taking the pile of clothes from your arm he heads over to the register and pays for it. Like he told you, you hadn’t paid any mind to the price of the clothes, and you didn’t pay attention to the amount of cash he paid either.

“good. now let’s go.” Sans pulls you out of your thoughts and takes your hand in his un-occupied one, the other carrying the bag with your new clothes.

You both walk out of the clothing store and out of the mall to make your way to the grocery store. 

You recognize the streets before you see the store itself. It’s the same store your parents always sent you to, they made you go to this specific one because it’s the cheapest one closest to their home. You stop walking and because he is still holding your hand, Sans does so too.

“somethin’ wrong, sweetheart?” he turns to you and furrows his brow at your scared, wide eyes.

You just look up at him and use your free hand to hold your opposite arm. You furrow your brow and nod at the store.

“ya know the store?” he tries. You nod and pointedly rub your arm. “yer parents..?” he asks again and you nod once more. He gets what you’re trying to say and turns back to the store.

“don’ worry, sweetheart. i’m here with ya, won’t let anything happen to ya. promise.” the last words were mumbled but you caught them anyways and squeeze his phalanges in appreciation. You follow him towards and into the store.

Once you’re both inside, Sans lets go of your hand to carry the shopping basket. You trail behind him silently, looking around. He gives you a look over his shoulder with his brow furrowed and turns back around to see where he’s going. Hanging the bag with your clothes off of his forearm and holding the shopping basket with the same hand, he offers his now free arm for you to take. You look up at him and smile with your brow furrowed to apologize for your behavior, before gladly holding onto his arm.

You walk beside Sans through the store, filling the basket with ingredients for a nice roast. This’ll fill you both and leave some for Papyrus tomorrow, so it’s a win for everyone. Sans lets go of you once more to go for the condiments while you walk off to the snacks. You’re looking for your favorite chips when you hear a very familiar voice. She’s complaining about having to go shopping, talking to herself angrily. You freeze.

The voice comes closer and closer to the aisle you’re in, until finally, your mother stands in front of you. She looks at you, just as frozen as you are for a moment until screaming out your name with an angry voice. You flinch and step back, your back against the shelves.

“How DARE you run away from home! And what are you even doing here! You useless bitch, I should drag you home by your hair! Come OVER HERE, right NOW!” she screams through the store. You hope to all the gods that Sans will hear her and come to your rescue when she takes a step towards you.

“MOVE I said!” she snaps, her voice going shrill. She takes another step towards you, reaching out with her hand, only for it to be stopped by a familiar, skeletal hand. You sob in relief.

“that’s not how ya should talk to yer own daughter, now.” Sans says with a dangerously low voice, the eyelights in his sockets are small, bright slits of red.

“Who ARE you! Don’t touch me, MONSTER!” your mother demands and pulls at her arm. Sans doesn’t let go however.

“i’m far from done with ya, lady. you’ve been busy on my little sweetheart over there, she ain’t done anythin’ wrong to ya, who gave you the right ta traumatize her like that?” he asks, his voice strained with suppressed anger.

“She’s MY daughter! It’s none of YOUR business what I do to her!” your mother tries to counter but Sans’ lowered brow and impossibly wide grin make her stop.

“oh, it’s all of ma business. have ya taken a look at’er? she’s covered in scars from what you’ve done to ‘er! she doesn’t talk, for stars’ sake!” he throws her hand so hard towards the ground your mother has to take a moment to not fall down. “ya failed as a mother and don’t ya dare laying another finger on’er, or i’ll make **sure** ya won’t” he growls at her, his right socket going empty for a moment, the left one flickering with a big flame before going back to the small slits.

Your mother huffs angrily and turns to you once more “This isn’t the last time you’ve heard from me! We will get you back home.” with this she turns around and leaves the aisle. Sans turns towards you and starts to say something, but doesn’t get it out before you start crying and fall into his front.

“now, now sweetheart. she’s gone. i won’t let ‘er take ya, don’t’cha worry.” he mutters soothingly, petting your head with his free hand. You shiver and nuzzle his stomach, calming down slightly.

Sans lets you cry into his turtleneck for a few moments, ignoring the looks he gets from passing customers, all the while petting your head and back. You calm down more and let go of his sweater, rubbing the tears off your face with your sleeve.

“better?” he asks, letting you take a step back so you can look up at him. You nod and hold out both your arms to hug his arm again. “did ya want those?” he points at the chips he found you in front of. You nod your head and he takes a packet, putting it with the rest of your articles. You’re glad he doesn’t dwell on the subject of your parents.

“so. was that all we need for tonight?” he asks and looks down at you. You have to think for a moment and check the basket on his other side. You nod up at him and squeeze his arm in a gesture to say thank you.

Sans seems to be very good at reading you when he answers “it’s okay, sweetheart. jus’ lookin’ out fer ya.”

You need to let go of Sans at the register so he can pay but you stay very close to him anyways. He fumbles with his wallet a moment and the cashier gives you both a weird look you can’t place before Sans is able to pay and put the groceries into a bag.

You walk alongside him out of the store and he leads you around to the back of it. You look up at him and tilt your head in question when he stops there.

“i’ll take a shortcut home if yer alright with that” he says and holds out his arm for you.

You consider this for a moment. The first time he did this you ended up at Queen Toriel’s house after feeling like falling. Deciding that it wasn’t horrible, you nod up at him, stand closer and settle on hugging him. He puts his arm around you after a moment of hesitation but fast enough for you to not look up at him to see why he hesitated. 

The feeling of falling is gone as fast as it came and you’re only slightly wobbly on your feet. Sans holds you steady until you’re good to stand on your own. You pat his arm and smile up at him as soon as he lets you go.

“i’ll put away the food. you go and put yer clothes away. i cleared a drawer for ya…” he says and looks away while handing you the bag with the clothes. You give him a wide eyed look and take the bag from him.

He notices your look and answers “yea, ya can stay in ma room. it’s fine.” then he turns away completely and walks off to the kitchen. You look after him for a moment, then walk upstairs into his room.

You look through the drawers and find the fourth of the six drawers free. It’s at a comfortable height for you to reach into, without having to bend down. 

You smile to yourself. While getting rid of the tags and labels on the clothes you start thinking more about Sans. 

* _He’s so considerate. He’s also really protective. The way he looked at mother was really something, he looked like she offended him on a personal level or something…_ * you smirk at the memory of her stomping away angrily. * _Sans seems to really care about me, unlike anyone up until now…_ * you think bitterly. You fold and put away the clothes before going back downstairs. You find Sans in the kitchen, waiting for your return.

“there ya are. i put the things away, ya wanna prepare your roast or ya wanna go watch some shitty TV and have snacks?” he asks, standing properly instead of leaning on the counter. You walk over to him and hug around his midsection.

“s-sweetheart?” he stammers and looks down at you with a blush on his zygomatic arches.

You let go of him again and point to the living room. He smiles at that.

“ _lemme get the snacks then_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Criticism is always welcome! Have a nice day ♥


	5. Night for two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little late on my end, but here you go! New chapter, freshly written!
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

You settle down on the couch with Sans. He gave you a blanket to catch the crumbs of your chips so Papyrus wouldn’t have his head the next day for dirtying the couch. You sit in your spot, cuddled against Sans’ chest again. He put in an old movie and spaced out as soon as it started. 

You didn’t pay attention to the movie either, choosing to instead watch Sans and the way the light of the TV reflects off his face and the way his eyelights dim and brighten with his thoughts, being fuzzy at the edges. Once you’re done with your chips, you turn in Sans’ arm, making him snap out of his thoughts. You fiddle with your fingers for a moment.

“what is it sweetheart? bored of the movie?” he asks you, searching your face with big and bright eyelights. You shake your head and point at your sternum, looking to the side and tilting your head a little.

“ya wanna know more ‘bout yer soul?” he guesses. You nod at this and look up at him again, putting your hands together in a praying position, asking him ‘please?’. He chuckles at your eagerness and lets go of you, turning on the couch to sit in front of you, his legs crossed. You mirror and face him with your legs crossed, too. The TV gets muted so you can talk to each other properly.

“so. yer okay with this?” Sans looks you in the eyes with a serious expression, his eyelights bright and attentive. This seems to be a delicate matter. You nod at him once and put your hands in your lap.

“kay. this’ll feel a bit different from what paps did, this isn’t a confrontation or a fight, got it?” warning you, he raises a hand and holds it in front of your chest with his palm facing you. Once you nod at him again, he focuses his eyes on your chest and turns his palm towards himself.

You feel the same pull at your chest as with Papyrus’ training and once your soul escapes your chest it lights your and Sans’ face in a dim, purple light. Sans was right with it going to feel different. With Papyrus you felt on edge, ready to run away. This feels warm and soft, welcoming in a way.

“yer soul’s color is purple. purple means perseverance. kinda explains how ya endured yer parents’… treatments.” Sans explains to you quietly. “it’s a little dim, prolly because of what you experienced…” You raise your hands to hover around the heart and look up at him, tilting your head.

“ya… shouldn’t touch it… with other people in the room. if ya know what i’m sayin…” he mutters, looking in the direction of the muted TV running commercials. You pat his patella with one of your hands and once he looks at you again you tilt your head again.

“it’s… a very private act to touch yer own soul. monsters use souls to reproduce, we normally don’t do… physical things to create another monster.” he mumbles and he blushes a bit. He quickly adds “which doesn’t mean we can’t, tho…”

You blush when you get the innuendo. It’s like masturbating? You’ll refrain from touching the soul then, as strong as the curiosity might be.

“do ya want me to explain some general things ‘bout souls?” he asks, the blush easing up. You nod again eagerly. He chuckles again and sits up a bit straighter.

“so a soul has different traits. first, there’s yer HP. HP is an acronym for HOPE. it’s also how much damage yer soul can take, as in magic cast at ya.” you tilt your head at the term ‘HP’ “monsters started referring to the traits of a soul with video game terms once some of those fell into the underground. made it easier to pick on the weak.” he rubs his hand across the back of his skull.

“anyways. there’s ATK. it’s how much damage ‘n attack from you would do on another person’s soul. then there’s DEF, it’s yer soul’s capacity to absorb ‘n attack’s damage before hurtn’.” he takes a long look at your soul. “yer ATK’s really low with 5 points, DEF really high with 96 though.” Your eyebrows raise at that and you give your soul a short glance, looking back up at Sans with wide eyes.

“jus’ tellin ya what i’m seein’. it’s prolly the... 'influence'... yer parents’ve had on ya.” he says with a low growl in the back of his throat. Your brow furrows and you look down at your soul again when Sans continues, his expression going dark with his eyelights shrinking and dimming.

“there’s two more, it’s EXP and LV. both’re acronyms, fer **E** xecution **P** oints and **L** evel of **V** iolence. ya gain EXP fer hurtin’ others, get enough EXP and your LV increases, the higher yer LV, the more ya can distance yerself from others. the more distanced ya are, the easier it is fer ya to hurt others.”

You look back up at him with your brow furrowed. You glance down at your soul to ask about your own EXP and LV. His smile comes back and his eyelights grow in size and brightness again.

“oh, don’t’cha worry, ya haven’t gained any EXP as far as i can tell. which is… admirable, ta say the least.” he says and grins down at your soul.

You blush at his compliment and cup your soul to try and hide it. It doesn’t seem to work as you hear him chuckle at you. “ya know, i had a pretty important job, back underground. ‘s called a judge. i got it ‘cus i can see souls even when they’re not out in the open like this. y’know what i did as judge?” You look back up at him to see his brow furrowed and his smile strained. You tilt your head. 

“i watched fer humans. and when a human came from the ruins, i had the job ta bring them to asgore. he... killed the first two holders of the six souls we collected. ‘t put such a strain on his poor soul that i couldn’t watch ‘n do nothin’. so i took it upon myself to kill the rest of’em. i killed four of those kids, to get their souls, to get monsterkind to freedom. but…” He doesn’t say anything else when he repeats the gesture he made to call out your soul over his own chest.

You gasp a little when a white, upside-down heart comes out of his ribcage. It looks bright compared to your dark purple, but for it being white, it isn’t very radiant. It also has cracks running through it. 

“it took a toll on ma own soul too.”

You look at it intently, raising your hand slowly to cup it like your own, only to be stopped between you and Sans by one of his.

“no touching souls, i told ya.” he says urgently. You shake your head and push at his hand. He lets go reluctantly and watches your hand like a hawk while you cup your hand a good few inches underneath his soul. You give it a sad look and focus on Sans’ eyelights again, your brow furrowed.

“don’t look at me like that. time underground wasn’t the easiest. t’s gettin’ better. the cracks won’t heal over without scarring i’m sure, but it’ll get better. it’s in th’ past.” he says with his eyelights trembling at the edges. They seem to try and change form again and, putting off the topic of ‘killing four children’ for another time, you decide to ask about it.

You point at your eye, then at his while tilting your head.

“my eyes? what, somethin’ wrong with’em?” he asks, the soul floating back into his ribcage when his focus shifts away from it. You notice your own hasn’t done that, maybe it’s a monster thing.

You huff out through your nose in frustration. You ask for things to write down on and after he puts your soul back inside your chest, he goes into the kitchen. He comes back and gives you a pen and a slip of paper.

“Your eyelights looked like they tried to change out of their circle shape. It’s not the first time either. Is that normal?”

“uhm. i dunno what ya mean.” he says, apparently surprised, with one of his eyebrows raised. The eyelights shrink to small dots and dim a little. You gesture to give back the paper.

“They seem to show what you think, I noticed them being bigger and brighter than normal in the morning for example”

“i didn’t know they did that. well, aside from when i use magic.” he says, looking at you, his brow now completely raised and his eyelights going back to normal. “neither boss, nor anyone else ever said anythin ‘bout my eyes changin’ shape.” 

He seems to think about it some more before shrugging “well, then let them change. let’s **change** topic too, ya wanna go ‘n make dinner?”

You pretend to think about it for a moment with one finger at your chin, narrowing your eyes and glancing up at nothing. You nod at him and go to get off the couch.

You get to preparing the sauce for the meat while Sans goes to stab an abundance of small holes into it with a fork. You two work in relative silence, only interrupted by the occasional spice-pun from him and a giggle from you. Once your preparations are done and the meat is in the oven with your sauce mix and veggies you sit down at the table while Sans leans against the counter. The meat would take two hours in the oven, so you set your mind to another topic Sans had put off.

You get his attention and poke your stomach, then point at him.

“oh. right. ya wanted t’ know what’s under my clothes” he answered, smirking at you. You blush at his choice of words but push through the embarrassment to nod at him.

“well, i already told ya that there’s nothin’ there. but if ya really need ta know…” he trails off, pulling at the hem of his sweater. This reveals his spine to you. You get up from your spot at the kitchen table and stretch out your hand. Sans watches you closely as you wave your hand through the empty space in front of his spine.

You look up at him with one brow raised. “what?” he asks and raises one of his brows at you too. You take the hem of his sweater to pull it down again and push against his stomach. Pulling it up once more you wave your hand under his ribcage again. You look at his face and huff out a breath in annoyance.

“i don’t get what’s yer problem here, sweetheart. is it that weird for ma magic ta hold ma clothes in place?” he questions you and drags a hand over the back of his skull.

It isn’t just holding his clothes in place though, so you put the sweater back into place and push against him with purpose this time, looking him into the eyelights while doing so.

“magic isn’t squishy like ya humans if that’s what this is about.” he tries. “imagine it like. invisible flesh maybe?”

You move his sweater out of the way again to put your hand into the empty space and stare into his face.

“it’s magic, not matter. don’t tell me ya can’t even feel it ‘round yer hand?” he asks, surprised with a brow raised again. You furrow your brow and concentrate on your hand, narrowing your eyes at the emptiness that is Sans’ stomach. It takes you a few moments but you start feeling something. It feels like… a bit of pressure? Or static? It makes the hair on your arm stand on end either way so you take your hand away and shake it to get rid of the feeling. You pull Sans’ sweater back into place a last time and look back up at him to shrug.

He snorts and moves to sit down on one of the chairs at the table, pulling you along at your forearm and sitting you down on his femur. You ignore the fact that this, covered by his track pants, isn’t cushioned like his stomach for some reason. If you brought it up, his answer would be something about magic again anyways.

You lean sideways into him and lay your head on his ribcage. You can feel the individual ribs through his sweater like this but decide to not grab them, remembering the first time you did that out of shock. His ribs seem sensitive. You breathe in deeply to exhale a contented sigh, just sitting here, relaxing in his arms and waiting for the food to cook makes you feel happy.

By breathing in so deep you inhale Sans’ scent too, it reminds you of smoke. Not the cigarette-kind of smoke but the kind a campfire makes. It makes you feel more at ease as you exhale. Your eyes droop closed and your hands rest in your lap as you relax further on Sans, pushing into him more. 

You don’t notice falling asleep but when you wake up, you’re on the couch, lying down with a thin blanket thrown over you. You push yourself up with your arms, looking around for Sans. Before long you hear a clatter from the kitchen. A quick glance at the clock tells you it’s about time for your roast to come out of the oven, so you get up and walk towards the kitchen.

Sans had set the table and is bent over to tend to the dish in the oven when you enter the kitchen. Seeing him pull the roaster out of the oven without any mitts on, you inhale sharply in a gasp and clutch your hands to your chest. Sans hears this and sets down the container on the table while looking at you. 

“no worries, sweetheart. there’s no skin t’ burn on me. c’mere” he holds up his hands while saying this and waves at your spot at the table before sitting down himself. Sans gets the lid off the roaster and sets it down on Papyrus’ side of the table before getting the ladle to put out the meat and veggies with sauce on your plates. He takes a considerably bigger serving for himself than he puts down on your plate and you nod up at him when he hands it over.

The two of you eat in silence, save for scraping cutlery on plates and chewing. Once you’re done with your serving you decide to take a little bit more and stand up to reach for the ladle.

“hold on” Sans says as he pushes your hand aside to get your second serving for you. You comply and sit back down, waving your hand to stop Sans from putting too much on your plate.

After Sans had a second serving of his own and you both finished your meals, you go over to the sink to clean the dishes. Sans occupies himself with putting away the leftovers for tomorrow.

“i’ll hav’ta see if paps will get himself some ‘o this. maybe i’ll eat it myself before he gets home…” he muses while putting the plastic container into the fridge. You snort and turn halfway to look at him. He’s standing in front of the fridge, grinning down at you. Noticing a smudge of sauce on his face you motion at him to come closer. You stretch out your hand and he bows down for you so you can reach him better.

“what is it, sweetheart? got somethin’ on ma face again?” he asks, watching your hand get closer and touch his cheek with your thumb. You swipe off the sauce and show him before licking it off and putting your hand back into the hot, soapy water to continue cleaning the dishes. Sans doesn’t move for a moment and when you look up at him you see that his eyelights finally changed, no flickering or wobbling around the edges. They’re big, red, cartoony hearts, upside-down and shining down at you brightly and you can’t help but snort at this.

Sans seems to snap out of it, the eyelights going back to their circle shape but still big and bright. “what’s so funny?” he asks, blushing a little and standing up straight again. You answer by pointing at your eye, careful not to splash any soapy water into it, then at him and shape a little heart with your hands, smiling up at him while doing so. This makes his blush spread and deepen as he looks away, spluttering. He seems to be unable to come up with a comeback so he leaves the kitchen, stammering. You chuckle to yourself while finishing up the dishes, stacking them neatly for Sans to put away in the high shelves.

After Sans had put away the clean dishes it was late enough for you two to head to bed, so you follow him upstairs into his room again. You can’t help but wonder what Sans was thinking when his eyes turned into literal hearts, upside-down, but hearts none the less.

Once you were both in bed, cuddled together like the times you both had woken up the past days, you couldn’t help but look up at Sans’ face. He isn’t paying you any mind, staring at the ceiling with fuzzy eyelights, lost in thought. You settle your chin on your right hand, cushioning your mandible from his ribs with it, using your left hand to reach out and poke Sans out of his daze. His hand catches yours before you can make contact though.

He blinks twice before looking down at your hand. “whadd’ya think yer doin’, exactly?” Sans mumbles tiredly, slurring his words a little more than usual. You shrug as good as you can in your lying position and push against his hold. He sighs and lets your hand go in favor of putting his arms around you.

“go t’sleep, sweetheart” he mutters and strokes your back absentmindedly, petting across your shoulders and upper back with one of his hands, the other blocking the rest of your back from the contact.

You reach up with your now free hand to cup his cheek, making him open his eye sockets at you tiredly once more. Struggling to climb up you actually grab onto one of his ribs with your right hand, effectively startling him into stopping with the petting, going rigid for a moment.

“what’re ya-“ he begins to ask, only to trail off at your lips meeting his cheekbone in a quick, chaste kiss. You smile at him, settling down against his ribs again, his hands hovering above you for a moment. Looking back up at his face you see it lit up brightly in a big blush, the eyelights returned to the heart-shape from earlier. You nuzzle into his ribs a bit to snap him out of it and settle down, hugging his ribcage as far as your arms would go with him lying down, effectively hanging your arms off of his sides and onto the bed.

You feel his body relax a bit and his hands returning to petting your back. “gnight, sweetheart” he rumbles quietly before you drift off into a dreamless sleep.

Waking up slowly you blink a few times with your cheek squished against Sans’ ribs, one of his hands is caressing your back like before you fell asleep. You raise your head to look up at him, only to find he’s already awake.

“mornin’ sweetheart. sleep well?” he asks, his voice quiet, a small smile on his face with the eyelights being big and bright like you came to know from him in the morning. You flop your head back onto his ribs with a huff.

“do i take that as a no?”, he chuckles and pats your shoulders with his hands, “c’mon. let’s get up before paps comes home.” You answer with a grumble, feeling too tired to get up already, but move to sit in front of Sans anyways.

He pushes himself up with his now free hands and turns to put his feet to the ground. Seeing Sans get up easily like this is different from the other mornings you experienced with him, seeing as he normally sleeps way longer than you, for one. You groggily lag behind him, standing up and shuffling towards the bathroom to clean up and hopefully startle your brain into a more alert state with a splash of cold water.

After you’re done in the bathroom, being fed up with the day already, you move downstairs to find Sans in the kitchen, preparing breakfast pancakes. He turns his head towards you when you enter the room and greets you.

“ya can sit down, breakfast’ll be ready in a few.” he says, turning back to not burn the pancakes he’s making. You plop down on your chair with a huff, making Sans chuckle again while he flips the flapjack in the air with a practiced-looking movement of his arm, catching it in the pan and setting it down again.

You’re surprised at how tasty Sans’ pancakes are to which he doesn’t react, only digging into his own pile of breakfast-goodness. After you are both done with your plates you clean the dishes together and go to sit on the couch to watch some TV before Papyrus would come back.

It actually didn’t take the taller of the skeletons long before unlocking and opening the door with a dramatic swing, announcing himself by knocking the door into the wall behind it loudly, making you wince. “SANS. I’M BACK. I HOPE YOU HAVEN’T MESSED UP THE HOUSE COMPLETELY WHILE I WAS GONE!”

You only wave at him while Sans looks at his brother with an expression that says ‘ _really._ ’; his eyebrows pulled down, sockets almost half way lidded with small and bright eyelights and his mouth in an almost perfectly straight line (if he could close it all the way, that is).

“ya know ya weren’t even gone fer 24 hours, right boss.” he says in a monotonous voice.

“YES SANS. I, THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS, HAVE DECIDED TO COME HOME EARLY. I ALSO BROUGHT ANOTHER GUEST, THOUGH SHE WON’T STAY HERE OVER NIGHT.” Papyrus announces as he strides into the room, leaving the door open for his ‘guest’. You hear Sans mutter an ‘oh no’ under his breath as a loud, female voice booms from the door:

“ _IT SHOULD BE ‘OH YEAH’ WHEN I COME TO VISIT YOU, YOU NERD!_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Criticism is always welcome!  
> If you find any mistakes, let me know ♥


	6. Undyne.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update-Sunday sneaking up on me again! But I got the update done in time, hope you enjoy ♥
> 
> Any feedback is welcome!

A tall, intimidating monster storms into the room. You gape at her as she drops a bag next to the entryway of the kitchen. She looks a little like a fish with the fins on the sides of her head where a human’s ears would be. The long, bright red hair on the top of her head is kept in a ponytail that reaches her waist. She’s taller than Papyrus, though it isn’t much.

You recognize this monster. Way back when the monsters first came out of the mountain, she was with the king. This is Undyne, the former captain of the Royal Guard, who is supposed to be in custody while the case of the six dead children is under investigation (at least that’s what you know from the news, which you haven’t been keeping up on for… reasons).

She turns to Sans and flashes a big, crooked smile, showing off her skewed and yellowed teeth.

“SO! WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO, NERD!” she demands in a loud voice that rivals Papyrus’.

“nothin’ much. saved a little lady from bein’ beaten to a pulp half a week ago.” Sans explains to her in a matter-of-fact kind of way.

“Ohhh, playing hero then?” Undyne smirks at him. You see Sans blush slightly, it’s hard to tell from the angle you’re looking from. That’s when Undyne finally notices you sitting halfway behind Sans’ arm.

“WAIT! You saved a HUMAN?” she shrieks, making you wince.

“yea i did. so what?” Sans drawls. The arm in front of you tenses and you take a hold of it in case he wants to get you out of there.

“HA! I didn’t think you had it in you to get over your view of humans, let alone SAVE one of’em!” Undyne says as she makes her way over to the couch where Sans and you still are. She peeks over Sans’ arm to try and get a look at you but you shrink back against the sofa cushions.

“undyne, i think she’d appreciate ya stayin’ over there..” he warns and moves to stand up in front of you.

“’sides i didn’t ‘get over’ it. the guys who did it were little dirtbags and… her parents aren’t any better…” he trails off and gives you a glance over his shoulder. Undyne seems to think about this as you only hear her move away after a brief moment of silence. She sighs.

“Well then, nerd. Ya can sit back down, I’mma get myself a chair from the kitchen.” Undyne explains in a voice more suited for indoors while walking away. Sans relaxes again and plops down on the couch next to you. Once she’s back, Undyne places the chair halfway into the room, between kitchen doorway and coffee table. Papyrus has sat down on the other end of the couch in the meantime.

Now that you’re no longer hiding behind Sans or his arm, Undyne gets a good look at you. She seems to be lost in thought for a moment before perking up and pointing one of her webbed hands at you.

“Aren’t YOU the one they’re lookin’ for on the TV?!” she yells. You wince once more at her loud voice and look up at Sans, who gives you an apologetic look with his brows furrowed. He then looks back at Undyne with his usual grin.

“yea she’s the one. but she has reasons fer why she ran away, so don’tcha dare tryin’ to take 'er back.” Sans says in a low voice. You briefly wonder why he said it before Undyne speaks up again.

“WHAT reason would there be to run away from yer own family? ‘specially when they’re looking for you!” she exclaims.

Sans looks back at you with a brow raised in question. You turn your gaze to the ground to think for a moment. Undyne was the captain of the Royal Guard, so she seems to have a good sense of justice… which apparently makes her question your reasoning. Sans would get you out of here when she makes any wrong moves, you’re sure. So you look back up at Sans, giving him the go-ahead to explain to Undyne why you ran away and why you’re still here.

Her face falls, her fins drooping down lower and lower and her eye growing wider in disbelief while his explanation went on. Sans tells her the things you told him and what happened at the store just yesterday. Once he’s done, Undyne is the one gaping at you.

“DAMN PUNK.” she yells while jumping to her feet. She looks like she wants to sprint at you but the air of the room changes, seemingly putting pressure on everything. You look around confused before your eyes land on Sans. You’re barely able to see his eye sockets but you see that his right eyelight shrank down and the glow from his left eyelight illuminates his face in a red glow, despite the light coming from the windows. The pressure in the room lifts when Undyne sits back down, her excitement worn off.

“No need to get into a hissy fit, nerd.” Undyne mumbles at Sans and turns to you again. “But damn. To think you’re on your own now and by the looks of it doing well. Ya at least got guts, I’ll give ya that.” she continues more quietly.

“I WOULDN’T LET JUST ANY PUNY HUMAN STAY IN THIS HOUSE, AS USEFUL AS SHE MIGHT BE!” Papyrus throws in. You turn your head to him, blushing a bit. That was as close to a compliment as he gets. The noise of multiple cars pulling up in front of the house makes you change your focus to the window.

“didya invite anyone else, boss?” Sans asks with a raised brow, also focused on the window.

“NO I DID NOT.” Papyrus answers in a quizzical tone.

“i’ll go look. hold on.” Sans stands up and passes by you, walking to the front door to open it and look outside. He looks surprised for a moment before stepping out onto the front porch and leaving the door barely open so it didn’t close on him. This seems out of the ordinary as Papyrus tenses on the other end of the sofa and Undyne gets up to stand in front of her chair in a battle-ready pose.

“how can i help ya, officer.” Sans asks loudly so you all are able to hear him clearly. 

The police? Oh no.

“There was a call that said you’re hiding a missing person in your home. We came here to investigate.” says a deep female voice.

“ya got a search warrant fer that?” Sans asks, leaning on the door frame.

“Do you have something to hide, Sir?” asks a different voice, a male this time.

“nah, i jus’ don’t like people lookin’ throu’ ma stuff without askin’ first.” he answers.

That’s when a different voice speaks up. It makes you jump up from the sofa, retreating to the stairs in case you have to run and hide in Sans’ room.

“YOU are that RUDE skeleton that took MY DAUGHTER! I saw you in the shop with her!” she shrieks.

“Madam, we asked you to stay in your car and let us handle this.” the male officer says to her.

“NO! YOU’RE NOT HELPFUL! I KNOW she’s in THERE! GO and GET HER!” your mother insists.

“We can’t just kick down the door, lady. He’s right about the search warrant. We will apply for one and come back again tomorrow. Please go back to your car, madam.” explains the female officer.

“IF YOU WON’T DO IT, THEN I WILL!” she yells before you see a foot trying to kick the door open, only to be shoved back by Sans still standing in the doorway.

“ya heard the officers, lady. quit it.” he warns her, the air becoming heavy again. You can only guess the look on his face going with that tone and shiver at the thought, glad you're not the one that it’s aimed at. You hear quiet discussions going on outside and see Sans grabbing onto the handle to hold the door in place. The struggling went on for a few minutes, growing more distant. Then you hear car doors slam and driving off before Sans comes back inside.

“welp. i guess you’ll have ta go somewhere else t’morrow.” he says, a hand at the back of his cervical vertebrae, his look aimed at you. You sigh at this, looking to the carpet for a moment before raising your gaze to his face again and shrug once.

He snorts and says “at least ya don’t freak over stuff like that, huh.” before letting his hand fall back to his side. Sans makes his way back to the couch, plopping down in his usual spot and patting the cushions next to him for you to come back and sit with him. Undyne sinks to the chair again, seemingly deflating with a sigh. Papyrus sits back on the couch, also relaxing at the (at least for now) defused situation.

You walk back over to the couch, automatically sitting against Sans’ side with his arm around your back and his hand resting on your side. Undyne smirks again but says nothing for a moment.

“SO. WHERE DO YOU INTEND TO HIDE THE SMALL HUMAN TOMORROW?” Papyrus speaks up first.

“i dunno boss…” Sans answers and rubs his free hand over his face with a scraping sound.

“I mean… I guess she could stay over at our place for some hours. We got anime you could watch to kill some time” Undyne offers.

You mull over this for a moment, looking up at Sans to see him looking at you with a brow raised, his eyelights bigger than normal with a bright glow. You let out a sigh and shrug again.

“yer okay with stayin’ at her place?” he sounds surprised and you nod at his question.

“WELL! GUESS THAT’S SETTLED THEN. I guess I should get home and tell Alph we’ll have a visitor t’morrow. She’ll flip her shit if I don’t tell her at least a day before” Undyne laughs while getting up. “Don’t worry, little punk. We won’t let that witch get’cha!” she gives you a thumbs up and heads for the door.

Once Undyne is gone, you’re able to properly relax against Sans’ ribcage, the heat radiating off him lulling you to sleep. You don’t listen to Sans and Papyrus quietly discussing what to do about the police searching their house tomorrow while drifting off into the darkness of a nap.

Papyrus wakes you up demanding your assistance in the kitchen for dinner. He’d eaten the leftovers for lunch. You’d slept through the largest part of the day at Sans’ side. So you help him with dinner, just an easy meal for three people.

After you are all done with your plates, Papyrus puts you and Sans on dish duty and disappears in his room upstairs. Without so much as a grumble Sans complies and helps you with drying off and putting away the clean dishes and cutlery. 

When you are back in bed, you lay there, awake because you’d slept the majority of the day. You think about tomorrow, how the day with Undyne would be. She also mentioned someone named Alphys. That’s a name you’d heard before but you can’t place it at the moment.

A few hours into the night, Sans begins to mutter and sweat in his sleep. At first you think it’s just another dream but as soon as his hold across your back grows harsher you decide you need to wake him up again. Grabbing onto his ribs elicits a deep and loud growl from him, the claws grabbing onto your sides almost painfully. You’re quite certain he must’ve punctured your shirt but you brush it off to pull yourself further up to reach his face with your hands. The sooner he wakes up, the less damage you and your clothes will probably take from this.

You slap his cheeks between your hands and shake his head from side to side to make him stir. He growls out loud once more and you feel the grip on your sides tighten further. He doesn’t seem to react to your hands on his face so you decide to fall around his neck and bury your head next to his skull. Nuzzling into the side of his skull you make a noise in the back of your throat to voice your pain. This makes him jerk upright, gasping out your name.

He breathes hard for a moment, letting his arms fall to his sides with his hands on your waist while you continue to cuddle the side of his face with your cheek to calm him down further. He lets out a shuddered breath and starts nuzzling back. “thanks sweetheart. i’m okay now.”

You lean back in his hold and look him in the eyelights. They are smaller than usual and dull. Tilting your head to the side you search his face for an explanation. He just shakes his head and repeats “i’m okay now..” He seems to think for a moment, moving towards you a few inches before stopping himself. Sans searches your face with his eyelights while you just look back at him with your brow furrowed in concern. He closes his eye sockets and the distance between you two to nuzzle his nasal bone into your cheek. You’re confused for a moment, frozen with him snuggling against you before you start doing the same, shoving the tip of your nose against his blushed zygomatic arches.

You feel like the contact sends shivers going through you whole body and centering on your soul. You blush at the apparent intimacy of this gesture when Sans detaches himself from you again to look at you with the upside-down hearts in his eye sockets lighting up the space between the two of you. You smile up at him while he hugs you close to his ribcage again and falls back into the mattress. “thanks. fer bein’ ‘ere. hope i didn’t wake ya...” he mutters and you shake your head against his ribs.

The buzzing feeling in your chest doesn’t let up the entire time you’re awake until you eventually fall asleep with your thoughts focused on the feeling that skeleton kiss gave you.

You wake up to phalanges fondling your scalp. Grumbling at the fact that you’re awake again you snuggle more into the ribs under your cheek. The feeling in your chest from nuzzling Sans last night hasn’t completely disappeared, making your soul hum happily. You raise your head to look at Sans, meeting his eyelights. “g’mornin’ sweetie. sleep well?” he asks, still petting your head with his hand.

You huff and push your head into his hand some more, making him chuckle. “y’know we can’t jus’ stay in bed. boss’ll kick down th’ door if we’re not down in twen’y.” You furrow your brow and give him a look before closing your eyes and letting your head fall back to his ribs with a huff. “i know, i know. i don’ wanna get up either, but you know how it is. aren’tcha excited ta visit undyne t’day?” he asks, shifting a little to look at your face.

You open your eyes again and look him in the eyelights. They’re big and bright, just like every morning. You shrug at him, making him chuckle again. “c’mon, she’s cap’n of th’ royal guard. Show s’m excitement or she’ll pout” Sans grins at you and stops petting you, letting go of you to get up.

Sitting up, he effectively shoves you off onto your back between his legs. You glare up at him and he laughs before offering you a hand to help you sit up too.

Once the morning routine took its course you are back in Sans’ room, putting your clothes into your backpack. When the police search the house it’d be better if they didn’t find a woman’s clothes. Even if Sans would probably find some excuse, you don’t want to get him into trouble.

You move to the bathroom to also pack your bathroom necessities and go back downstairs once all your stuff is packed up.

“ready to go to undyne’s?” Sans asks, holding an arm out for you. You nod up at him and hug his ribs as far as your arms would go. 

A second later you stand in an unfamiliar living room. There’s a piano in the far corner opposite of the front door, straight ahead of the door are stairs into the second floor, next to the staircase is a door which you assume leads to the kitchen. A TV with a round coffee table and red sofa are to your right, along with a fitting red armchair between couch and piano.

“ay, undyne!” Sans calls out. There’s stomping upstairs and a door banging against a wall from being opened too harshly before the fish lady appears at the top of the stairs.

“THERE YOU ARE, NERD! Alphys isn’t in at the moment, so your punk and me, we’ll have a movie day!” she announces while walking down the stairs. “We’re freshly stacked up on snacks, too! Just leave your bag wherever, punk and go sit on the couch!” Undyne says, pointing to the sofa with her thumb.

You hear her and Sans discussing something, probably about when he’s going to pick you up again, while walking over and sitting down on the left cushion of the three-person-sofa. When you hear steps behind you, you turn to see Undyne disappearing in the now open doorway next to the staircase which reveals a kitchen (guessed right, hah), and Sans walking up to you. He nuzzles the top of your head for a moment before standing up straight once more.

“don’tcha worry ‘bout what happens. we’ll make sure that bitch won’t get to ya. you have a nice day, i’ll bring ya back home as soon as the cops are done, kay?” You stare at him for a moment before a big smile erupts on your face and you nod eagerly. He chuckles and gives you another pat before disappearing.

Undyne enters the room soon after, holding about six different snacks in her arms. She walks over, careful to not drop anything, and dumps all the packets on the coffee table. “Hope there’s somethin’ ya like among these!” She says, walks over to the TV and opens the shelf underneath to look at the collection of movies. “Whaddya wanna watch, punk?” She asks, turning halfway in the squatting position she’s in.

You hold up your hand with a pointer finger stretched up, signaling her to wait for a moment, and jump up to hurry to your bag. You pull out a wad of paper along with a pen and walk back over to the couch. You scribble on the paper for a moment before turning it around for Undyne to read.

“Anything but horror is fine” she reads out loud. “’kay then! I’ll make ya watch Alphys’ and my favorite show! It’s an anime with totally rad girls beating the everliving shit out of the bad guys! With swords! And guns! And a lot of violence, FUA HA HA!” Undyne keeps cackling for a moment longer while digging through the shelf to find the right case. You cross out the previous message on your paper before writing a new one and knocking on the table to pull Undyne’s attention back to you.

She reads aloud once more “So this is a series, not a movie? How much will we be binging?” and laughs. “Oh, as much as we can until that NERD comes to get ya!” You chuckle at that, Undyne seems to avoid saying names out loud as much as the other monsters you’ve met so far. You decide you’ll ask Sans about it later.

“So, is there something in this pile you’d wanna have? Cuz if you don’t take it away, I’mma eat it all myself!” Undyne says while popping the first disc of the series into the DVD player. She stands back up to her full height to walk over to the couch and plop down on the right cushion, leaving the one in the middle between you two empty. You look over the pile of snacks and spot your favorite among them, so you reach out and grab the packet.

Suddenly Undyne laughs out loud again and you turn your head towards her, startled by the volume. You furrow your brow at her and as soon as she calms down again she has to wipe away a tear from her eye that’s not covered by the eyepatch.

“ _Oh, punk. You and I? We’re gonna get along jus’ fine!_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Criticism also always welcome!


	7. Resolve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M ALIVE!
> 
> Yes, I finally got around to writing this chapter!  
> Between temporary work and looking for a fulltime job,  
> having almost been kicked out by my current landlords and looking for a new flat for several reasons aside from this,  
> I finally did it xD
> 
> I hope it doesn't disappoint and that I can keep up the motivation to keep writing,  
> I'm curious to see how this story continues, too xD
> 
> Any feedback is still welcome!

You tilt your head at Undyne in question. What did she mean by that? She just shakes her head at you. “That’s Alph’s fave, too. If you’re anything like her, I’m sure we’re gonna get along!”, she explains.

You make an “a”-shape with your mouth and turn back to the TV, where the DVD’s home-screen came up, asking what you wanted to do. Undyne takes the remote to select “Play all” and threw it on the cushion between you two. Laying back, she props her feet on the far corner of the coffee table, so they wouldn’t be in the way of watching the anime she put on.

The first and only intro-scene the DVD showed told you the anime’s name is Ganken Girls. You’d never heard of it up until that point, so you continue to watch in your usual silence. Barely three minutes into the episode, Undyne starts talking about the anime. Theories, what characters she likes and “hates” (as she put it) and then came the spoilers.

You gesture to her to catch her attention. Once she paused the DVD and stopped ranting on and on about the happenings of the anime, you start writing something down. She reads it aloud again when you turn the note around to her.

“Doesn’t it defeat the purpose of watching the anime if you tell me what’s going to happen next anyways” she says and thinks on this for a moment. Undyne focuses her eye on you again “I mean-“

She gets cut off by the clanking of keys on the door. “THAT’S GOTTA BE ALPH!” was the last thing you heard before Undyne basically threw herself across the room to reach the door before it even gave the little “click” sound of unlocking. She rips the door open in your direction so you can’t see “Alph” at first when you hear a squeal and see Undyne coming back into view with a yellow-scaled monster in her arms. Kicking the door closed she makes her way over to the back of the couch and sets the dinosaur down.

Undyne then proceeds to introduce you to “her girl”. You knew Alphys. You remember now, that way back when the monsters first came out of the mountain, the reporters talked about the king, the royal guard and the royal scientist. You just wave at her with a small smile, feeling the need to test the waters with her first.

“So you’re the human Undyne told me about yesterday.” That. Wasn’t a question. She stated it like a fact, so you just nod to her to simply confirm it. Alphys tilts her body to the side a little to look behind you at the paused scene on the TV. Her face **lights up**.

“OH MY GOSH, you two are watching Ganken WITHOUT ME?!” she shrieks. You rear back in surprise but Undyne is quick to amend;

“Yea we are, but that’s still the first-“ she starts and gets cut off by Alphys.

“I know that’s the first episode, Dyne” she smirks up at her girlfriend, “Jus’ pulling your leg” Alphys continues while walking around the couch to plop down on the middle cushion. Surprised you notice that, while Alphys is a monster, she’s not nearly as tall as all the others you’d seen. From head to tail she may reach the same dimensions, but in a standing or sitting position she’s barely your height. Considering her posture, you’re not surprised about that though.

Undyne decides to sit down with you two and starts up the anime again. Her ranting about the series starts up again, too, but this time Alphys joins in and the two geek out over it. You watch them with a smile on your lips, they really fit well together. Undyne would never admit it but she’s just as much of a geek as Alphys. At least regarding anime.

The episodes rolled by pretty quickly and your snack was eaten in the meantime when you notice it’s past noon already. Undyne and Alphys are still discussing various theories and characters from Ganken Girls when you take your papers to write a message for them.

“Hey, are you guys hungry? It’s already afternoon and I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast” you write and hold the message out into Undyne’s field of vision. It takes her a moment to notice it and snap out of her conversation with Alphys. She reads it aloud and looks up at the clock above the TV. “Yea punk, you’re right. I had a healthy breakfast but lunch is important too!” She says and jumps up from the couch, starting towards the kitchen. 

“I’ll better go and help her, or she’ll either burn the kitchen or destroy our pots and stuff again”, Alphys sighs and gets up to follow her girlfriend. That leaves you and the paused DVD in the living room. You write out another message and get up to go and see if you can help with anything. You knock on the doorframe once you reach the entryway of the kitchen. Undyne seems very focused on cutting something on the cutting board under strict supervision of Alphys when the latter turns around to read what you came for.

“Oh, you want to see if you can help?” she asks and you nod eagerly. “Well, I’m keeping an eye on the hothead here, so she doesn’t destroy the kitchen, you could set the table if you want?” she offers. You nod once more and she shows you where the plates and cutlery are. After you’re done with your task, Alphys waves you off and you decide to just sit at the table to wait for them to finish making the food.

It wasn’t anything special, just some self-made ramen (seriously, they really are dorks at heart... at soul?), but it smelled amazing and tasted even better! After what you heard from Alphys about Undyne destroying the kitchen and the utensils you expected her to be a bad cook. What you ate was everything but bad, though. Maybe it was because Alphys kept such a close eye on her spitfire of a girlfriend that the food turned out edible but you won’t question it. Instead, you decide to savor this meal.

After lunch, the three of you clean the dishes together (you insisted on helping, Undyne tried making you go and sit on the couch again), with you cleaning them in the hot, soapy water and rinsing off the suds for Alphys to dry them off and she gave them to Undyne to put everything away. Like this, the clean-up was done in no time at all and you could go back to watching the anime with both of them.

Or rather, watching them discuss the anime. You don’t mind though, it’s nice being around friends instead of being alone or in fear in your own home. So this is what you spend your day with. Watching anime and watching the dorks argue **about** that anime.

You wonder when and how long the police are looking through Sans’ and Papyrus’ things when evening rolls around. It’s about 4 p.m. and you haven’t heard a thing. The first season of Ganken Girls finished half an hour ago and the second season receives mostly critical commentary from the two monsters on the couch next to you. They apparently don’t like it very much, even though they seem to have watched it several times over.

You decide to write something down for them but as you were about to turn your paper around, you’re interrupted by a gruff “heya” coming from the door. You turn your head towards the voice quickly and spot Sans near the door, in the same place he landed in with you this morning. You gasp excitedly and jump over the backrest of the couch to run up to him. Stopping in front of Sans, you show your message and bounce on the balls of your feet, waiting for him to finish reading.

“oh, ya were ‘bout to ask if they knew anything? well, they wouldn’t’ve known, haven’t sent them any messages today”, he explains. “anywho, the cops’re finished with the house and everything else on the property, so ya can come back if ya want” Sans says while grinning down at you.

In the meantime, Undyne and Alphys paused the DVD to join the two of you at the door. “Took ya long enough, nerd. Everything okay with you and Papyrus?” Undyne speaks up while coming closer. Sans turns his attention to her to nod “yea, they checked everything for a sign of her. i believe we should tell them why she ran away in th' first place” he tells her while putting one of his hands on your head for emphasis, turning his gaze back on you he continues “yer over twenny already anyways, those guys shouldn’t be able ta make ya come back with the police or anything. prolly lied to them to get them to search the house, too.”

You take your pen to write something down again, crossing out the previous message and turning the paper for Sans to read. He raises a brow while reading “they either told the police yer not of age yet, let yer age out completely or told them yer ‘of unsound mind’? what does that even mean?” You add something and show it to him again, this time both his brows shoot up “they maybe told the cops yer crazy? what kind of parents are they? ... wait, don’t answer that, we know **they’re** the ones ‘of unsound mind’” he grumbles the last part.

“Those two really overstepped their boundaries with you.” Alphys chimes in. “If you guys ever need help with that stuff, let us know. I’m sure I can talk for Dyne here too, when I say we’ll help.”

“Alph’s right. If it’s either punching someone to a pulp or just looking out for ya, we’re here! The little punk didn’t do anyone harm.” Undyne agrees.

“i don’t think ya need ta punch anyone to a pulp, undyne, but thanks anyways. i think we got this.” Sans says. “anyways, cmon sweetheart. git yer things, we’re goin’ home”

You look up at him with big eyes at that. **’Home’** he’d said. Tears fill your vision at the realization. You nod once and blink them out of your eyes to pack your stuff back into the bag.

You sling your bag back on your shoulder but keep your paper and pen in hand. You write something else down and hold it out to Undyne and Alphys once you’re next to Sans again. Undyne reads it aloud, like all of your messages until now.

“Thank you for having me today. It really helped and it was fun too!, well punk, I like ya already so yer welcome anytime!” she says and Alphys just nods to agree with it. You smile at them and take your writing utensils in one hand, to take hold of Sans’ arm with the other.

“’kay then. thanks again you two, it really helped out.” Sans says, already waving with the arm not occupied by you. “welp, ‘til next time”

You’re getting used to the feeling of Sans’ teleportation more and more, so when you land in his room you wobble just slightly before finding your bearings and letting go of his arm. “fourth drawer’s still yours. i’ll go down and let paps know yer back” he tells you while heading out of the door.

After you’d put your clothes away in the drawer and your toiletries plus a set of pajamas back into the bathroom, you head downstairs to find the brothers in the kitchen. Papyrus is preparing dinner from the looks of it and Sans had set the table which he’s sitting at now. You knock on the doorframe to make yourself noticed and head for your chair next to Sans.

“WELCOME BACK SMALL HUMAN.” Papyrus greets you while scraping the chopped ingredients into the pan on the stove. You catch Sans’ eye and tilt your head with a nod towards Papyrus. 

“it’s some sort of noodle-pan dish” he tells you and Papyrus turns around sharply, looking indignant. “IT IS CALLED CORGETTE CARBONARA, SANS. NOT JUST SOME ‘NOODLE-PAN DISH’!” You perk up at ‘carbonara’, that’s something you liked to eat when your parents were still normal. Your mother had a really good recipe; you’d have to try recreating it sometime.

Sans had put up his hands in a placating manner “okay, okay boss, carbonara it is” he says and winks at you. You stifle a giggle and bump his arm with your shoulder. Sans lets out a low chuckle himself and settles down again “so how long will this take, boss” he asks.

“Just About Twenty More Minutes. Stop Pestering Me, Lazybones. It’s A Miracle You Offered To Help In The First Place, So I Will Not Overstrain My Luck With Making You Do More” Papyrus grumbles the last part without looking away from his work. You look at Sans with raised eyebrows. His offering to help is surprising for Papyrus? He turns to you when he notices your surprised look.

“le’s jus’ say the name ‘lazybones’ wasn’t earned fer nothing. or rather, earned fer literally nothing.” he says quietly and winks at you once more. You can’t keep the grin from forming on your lips, but shake your head at him despite it. 

You wait for the food in silence after this, wondering how life was for these two before you decided to barge into the picture. Maybe one day you’ll find out.

When Papyrus was done, he put the food out for everyone and waited for you to start eating, watching your reaction. With your first bite your eyes widen and you can’t keep an excited smile off your face when looking up at him. You go back to eating instantly and don’t catch Papyrus letting out a breath he didn’t need to hold. But Sans noticed.

You stop your eating when you hear Papyrus grumble and see him stuffing his face with a blush on his face. Your look falls on Sans and he just wears his smile as always while eating the way he normally does; though you notice his eyelights being bigger than a few minutes ago so you guess he’d joked at Papyrus again and liked the reaction. With a shrug you focus on your food again.

After dinner the usual routine takes its course, with Papyrus leaving you and Sans to dish-duty and heading upstairs.

“we’ll need ta go buy groceries again t’morrow. ya up to that?” he asks and regards you out of the corner of his eye while putting a plate away he’d just dried off. You’re thankful for him minding the situation that... happened in the store and what that resulted in (which you’re still a little shaken up about) but you know you’re safe with him. So after thinking it over you look up at him and nod eagerly. He looks relieved at that and adds quietly to himself “i’ll make sure ta not let’cha on yer own again, too. that really doesn’t need ta happen again without me bein’ there”

You’re soon done with the dishes and head to the bathroom when Sans goes to his room. You freshen up and change your clothes before heading to Sans’ room too. He’s sitting on his mattress when you close the door behind you. Halfway across the room you stop in your tracks, tilting your head at him. His eyelights are gone and you don’t know what that means yet so you creep closer and stoop a little lower to get in what you guess is his field of vision. 

He snaps out of it and his eyelights return a little hazy and darker than usual. Now you at least know he’s looking at you, so you straighten up for the rest of the way and sit down next to him, never taking your concerned look off his eyelights. He blinks twice and shakes his head before looking at you once more with sharper and a little brighter eyes. 

“jus’ thinkin’ ‘bout t’morrow. no need ta worry sweetheart. le’s jus’ go ta sleep, kay?” While talking he got to laying down already and invites you to him with holding out his arms to you. You accept his invitation by climbing on all fours onto the mattress and onto Sans in what is becoming your usual sleeping position.

He turns off the lights again and settles his arms around your back, holding you in place. You lay your head on your folded hands and drift into sleep soon after.

~~~

You can’t see.

You feel like drifting afloat in the ocean.

You’re set down on your feet. Your vision returns.

It’s your father. He shakes his head. He disappears. You feel panic.

Now your mother. She looks angry. She too, disappears. You feel sadness.

You begin to drift again. You feel helpless. Tired.

Nobody cares. Your family tried killing you. Out of desperation, out of anger... out of nowhere? You can’t answer this.

You curl up, still floating. Your parents’ voices chase you.

Suddenly they stop.

For an eternity, there’s nothing. Just you, floating.

~

~

~

Then there’s white. You feel like falling. A glinting gold tooth. A smooth, deep voice. Telling you it’ll be okay. You’re safe.

Your vision returns. The first thing you see are blood-red dots of light. Two of them, staring right back at you.

The eyesockets the dots of light are in have a worried look to them. You stretch out your arms.

You’re being picked up and held. You hold onto him. The cracked, dim, beautifully white soul.

You fade.

~~~

You open your eyes. You’re still on top of Sans, your head on top of your folded hands. His arms still securely around your back. You heave a sigh of relief.

This wasn’t a bad nightmare but it definitely made you remember how much power your parents still have over you. You need to shake them off, leave them behind completely. With a look at the clock you notice it’s barely 4 A.M. Sans is breathing deeply, every breath ghosting over your head.

You’re so very thankful for him. That he saved you from these thugs, saved you from your mother, saved you from the police your mother probably tricked. You make a decision. You will break these chains that bind you to your past.

 

But.

 

That will have to wait until morning. The spot you’re in is way too comfortable right now. So you fall into a dreamless slumber.

The next time you wake up it’s to Sans petting your back again. You slowly open your eyes to adjust to the brightness of morning in the room. Grumbling, you close your eyes and turn your face into Sans’ ribs to escape the light. He just chuckles at that.

“mornin’ sweetheat. how’s the night?” he asks, still petting your back. You just groan at him as answer, to which he just chuckles again. “c’mon, we need ta get up” he says and pats your back twice before trying to sit up without knocking you over again.

You sit up slowly, only to theatrically flop over onto your back with a huff. You lay between Sans’ legs when he sits up to look at you with a wide grin on his face, his eyelights big and bright in mischief. Before you could even think to get up and run away, he has his hands at your sides. 

Not even two seconds after he started tickling you, you’re rolling left and right to try and stop him, laughing loudly. You barely hear him doing the same over your own laughter. After just a moment you can’t take it anymore already and swat at his arms aimlessly to make him stop. You barely even graze his sleeves but he stops anyways.

After catching your breath you decide to comply and get up from the bed. You shoot Sans a dirty look before grabbing some fresh clothes out of your drawer and heading for the door.

“ahhw, sweetheart, don’t go **skull** king 'round now” he calls after you. You stop in the open doorway, turn around to look at him and stick out your tongue. He looks at you owlishly for a moment before you turn away and head for the bathroom.

You wash your face with cold water to wake up properly, brush your hair and teeth and put on the fresh clothes you picked earlier. Your resolve from last night is still strong in your mind when you walk downstairs to join Papyrus in the kitchen, only to see that he’s not there. 

Instead, you find a note on the table, stating he’d be at work until evening. It also says there’d be breakfast in the fridge, so you open it to look inside and see bowls of sliced fruit and Cinnamon Bunnies on plates next to them. You take one fruit-bowl and one of the Cinnabunnies and go to sit down at the table.

As soon as you start eating, Sans comes in and opens the fridge. He doesn’t seem quite as pleased with the breakfast as you but takes a bowl and one of the plates anyways and sits down next to you.

You two eat in relative silence and go to cleaning the dishes right after, as it became routine recently.

While handing Sans the last plate to dry and put away you take a deep breath and gather your resolve from last night once more.

“ _I’m going to the police today_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Criticism also always welcome!


	8. An exciting day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter - wooo!  
> I'm on a roll guys! 
> 
> Also a week of my temporary work being on ice makes me have a lot of free time to spare! :D
> 
> Any feedback is very welcome!

Sans almost drops the plate he’s holding, staring at you with widened eye sockets. You turn to look at him and tilt your head in question.

“ya. ya jus’ talked” he says, sounding as surprised as he looks. You look up and to the left into the air in a thinking motion, only to look back at him to shrug. He huffs out a disbelieving laugh, putting the plate away that’s still in his hand.

“i’mma take that as ‘yer gonna start talking again, but yer still not a chatterbox’”, he guesses with an easy grin on his face. “I’ll at least try getting used to it again” you answer and walk out of the kitchen, heading for upstairs.

“what’re ya doin’?” Sans calls after you, sticking his head out of the doorway of the kitchen. You stop in front of the stairs to wiggle one of your feet in the air in his direction and point with your thumb over your shoulder, gesturing outside. “ah, sure. you go get yer shoes, i’ll get a bag papyrus insists i use...” he says and grumbles afterwards “always forget those stupid things...”

You smile at that last part and head upstairs to find your shoes and your purse. Once you gathered everything, you head downstairs again to find Sans waiting in front of the door for you. You tilt your head at him once more.

“i guessed walkin’d be nice, ‘is not that cold t’day” he explains and you shrug again. You’re not easily bothered by the cold when walking around and shopping for groceries should be done fast enough, so that you can head to the police department afterwards.

Sans lets you go out of the door in front of him, holding it open for you and locking it behind the two of you. You both begin walking towards the cheap store you know and it’s just a matter of about twenty minutes until you see the back of it. The house your parents live in lies about half an hour past the store from here. You hope you don’t have to see either of them today, so your resolve to go and talk to the police doesn’t break.

You latch onto Sans’ arm when you get closer to the store and he looks at you for a brief moment but focuses on walking again quickly. Once you are inside of the store, you feel the eyes of the other customers on you. They burn holes in your back with their looks and your hold on Sans’ arm tightens.

“you okay, sweetheart?” he asks you quietly. “They’re staring” is all you say while you whirl your head around to keep everything at least somehow in sight.

Suddenly, for just a short moment, there’s a pressure in the air. Then you feel relieved, it doesn’t feel like the people in the store are trying to kill you with their looks anymore. You turn and tilt your head to look up at Sans and see his sour look darting around at the few men and women who still look your way. Then his eyelights find you and his look softens.

“le’s go ‘n get the food so we can get outta here.” he says and continues towards the meat-isle.

Once you two are done shopping for food you head home to store it all away. You got some snacks for the evenings to come, some bread and cold-cuts, cereal and milk for breakfast, fruits, veggies, meat and a few bottles of mustard (when she rang you up, the cashier gave you a funny look, not daring to raise her eyebrow at the intimidating skeleton next to you) for today’s and tomorrow’s lunch.

You’re busy with putting the things in need of cooling into the fridge when Sans comes back into the kitchen from wherever he hides his mustard from Papyrus.

“ya ready?” he asks, stopping behind you. You close the fridge and turn around to face him, taking a deep breath. After holding it for a second, you breathe it out in a huff and say “As ready as I’ll be. Let’s just get this over with.”

“i haven’t been there yet, so i can’t ‘port us. but i can get us outta there if anythin’ turns fishy.” he tells you while heading out of the kitchen and towards the front door. You follow him and slip into your shoes you left at the entrance before walking out. Sans locks everything again and starts down the sidewalk with you hurrying to keep up with him.

The walk to the police station leads you through the neighborhood, through the park and past a primary school. It’s almost noon once you’re there and you climb the stairs with Sans falling back a bit. You turn to him once you notice and tilt your head in question.

“uhm. do ya... prefer goin’ alone? monsters aren’t really... trustworthy, in the eyes of most humans i mean...” he mutters and kicks his foot at the stair he’s standing on. You just walk the few steps down to him, grab his arm and pull him with you into the station. He’s the one who saved and protected you, of course you want him in here with you.

The lady at the front desk freezes at the sight of the big skeleton, who stumbles after you because you haven’t let go of his arm yet and he really can’t walk normally like that. You walk up to her and finally let go of Sans’ arm to put your hands atop the counter.

“I want to file charges against my parents.” you declare. You give her a short explanation of your situation and she looks at you for a moment, seemingly trying to process what you just said and snapping back into action a moment later. “S-sure. You’ll have to fill out a form and give all the information required on it. If you leave something out, we might not be able to investigate properly or the punitive application could be denied completely.”, she explains and rummages behind the counter in one of her desk drawers. 

She pulls out a sheet of paper, a clipboard and a pen, puts it together and hands it to you. “You can use the table over there-“ she points across the room to a sitting-arrangement “-to fill everything out. If you have questions, do not hesitate to ask for help.” You thank her and walk to one of the tables, sitting down on one of the wooden chairs. Sans follows silently and sits down next to you, keeping an eye out for anything that might be bad.

You fill out the form, giving your full name, the residence you are still registered at and describing what your parents did to you, when and why you ran away and that you now took shelter at a friends’ house. You have to ask Sans for his last name but he just shrugs his shoulders. So you decide to describe him as “Sans the skeleton monster”. You leave out how you two met for obvious reasons, instead stating that he found you freezing on a bench in the park. You also describe the situation at the store from a few days ago and that your parents tried lying to the police as well to get you back home just the day before yesterday.

It takes you a good half hour to get the bare-bones (hah) of your situation down on the paper, taking up a good portion of the backside as well. Once you’re done, you take everything and head back over to the counter. Sans follows closely behind you. 

The lady from before perks up once she notices you and leaves her PC monitor to stand in front of you again. She takes back the clipboard and eyes the sheet of paper, turning it around as well only for her gaze to turn hard and looking back up at you.

“I assure you, we will get to investigating as soon as possible. I’ll give this to the higher-ups so these people don’t waste our time again.” she says and turns to leave through a door you hadn’t noticed before. Her colleague, still sitting at his desk and looking at his screen, finally turns to look at you when he sees the woman leave so fast.

He gets up and comes over, having seemingly overheard your first conversation with the female officer “I’m sure she’ll do everything to get this file on it’s way. In the meantime, you should probably go to the city hall and file for change of residency.” he says and looks at you and Sans. You thank him as well and head for the entrance again, only for it to violently open and almost smacking you square in the face. Sans pulled you away from it in time and stands in front of you now, with a hand protectively held in front of you.

There she is. Your mother. And this time, your father is there as well. At least he doesn’t seem to have anything on him he could use as weapon. You clutch Sans’ arm and hide behind it as best as you can when you hear a shriek of your name.

“How dare you, coming to the police station?! The police looked through that MONSTERS home yesterday and couldn’t find A THING, and NOW you just turn up here!” she starts and stomps over to where Sans tenses up even more.

“not a step closer, lady. yer not gunna touch her ever again.” he all but growls at her. You feel the magic crackle in the air, telling you he must have started up his magic at her, trying to keep her away. Which works, she takes a hesitant step back at the danger of the big monster in front of her. But this time, your father is also there.

In a demanding voice he always used when you did something wrong, he almost shouts “Come here young lady! Your mother and I are very angry with you and you will not get away with all of this!”

Thank god you are in a police station right now because the woman from earlier and her colleague dart out from behind their counter to stand between you and your parents. “This will not escalate. We just got a report about you two and investigations will soon commence, so we ask you to kindly leave this station, if there is nothing you want to report” the lady says with authority in her voice.

Your parents falter and your mother says in a much quieter but still demanding tone “We want to file a report on this MONSTER! It kidnapped our daughter and brainwashed her!”

Sans looks like he wants to retort at that but you were faster. You step around him, making his jaw click shut, and stand next to the police officers. “HE did not kidnap me, mother.”, you say with as much ice in your voice as you can manage. Her expression falls.

“And he certainly didn’t brainwash me either. He’s the best thing happening to me since... I can’t even think of when I last was happy in YOUR household. Don’t you dare and try painting a target on him or any other monster, they have a million times more kindness in their souls than you could ever have in your stone-cold hearts!” you rant and jab your finger at them. 

Your parents both look lost and don’t react to you turning to Sans and grabbing onto his arm again, only to pull him past them, out of the door and down the stairs. You hear some distant shouting, probably your parents trying to run after you and being stopped by the officers, but you continue walking and turn into the next alley you find.

You let go of Sans’ arm once more to lean on one of the walls and breathe deeply for a moment, trying to calm your raging heartbeat.

“are... are you good?” Sans asks quietly and you turn your head to look him in the eyes. He looks concerned, with his brow furrowed and his eyelights brightly glowing down at you. You manage to nod and get back to breathing exercises. He shuffles in place for a moment before leaning on the wall next to you.

“that. was really somethin’ ya did back there..” he chuckles lowly. “makes me wonder why yer soul’s purple fer perseverance an’ not orange fer bravery, it really glowed back there, too.” Your heart calmed down enough for you to focus on his words again.

“It... glowed?” you ask, curious. “well, yea. human souls start glowin’ reaaally bright when they get worked up. and normally they glow with the color they’re actin’ out at the moment...” - “But..? That sounds like there’s a ‘but’” - “you got a butt, i’m jus’ bones” he jokes and winks at you. You can’t help but laugh. Once you calmed down you try again;

“No, seriously, that sounded like there’s something wrong with me” you say and look down at your shoes. “naah, sweetheart, that’s not what i was tryin’ ta say” he backtracks. “jus’... i couldn’t tell what color it was, okay? it jus’ simply got brighter an’ brighter, like as if it glowed... white...” he trails off.

“White..?” you prompt as he looks down at you. “le’s... get home first. we can look into this when we’re both down from that...” -he glances back in the direction of the police station- “... incident.” 

You nod your agreement and take hold of his arm, expecting him to teleport but he just starts walking out of the alley and back onto the street, leading you into the direction of the park you came through on your way here. You shoot him a questioning glance but he doesn’t seem to notice it.

In the park you come across an ice cream truck, run by a blue rabbit monster. You pull on Sans’ sleeve to get his attention and point to the truck once he looks down at you.

He hesitates for a moment and stops walking. “ain’t it a bit cold to eat nice cream?” he asks but smirks. It’s a pretty mild day for autumn and you always wanted to try the monster-version of ice cream, so you just shrug at him and take a step towards the truck, pulling him along (if he wasn’t willing to follow you, you wouldn’t be able to pull him along, so you take it as consent).

Once you reach the counter, you knock on the glass surface to catch the bunny monster’s attention. Her perks up and looks a lot happier than just a moment ago. “Well hello there! A customer! Do ya want a nice cream? It’s the frozen treat that warms your heart!” he exclaims, way happier than you thought any monster would be after all those years under the mountain.

You nod up at him and point to the chocolate flavor. “One chocolate, comin’ right up!”, he says and reaches inside of the cooler. 

“actually, make that two, bunnyman” Sans says and the bunny looks at him with an eyebrow raised in surprise. “Alrighty, two chocolate nice creams-“ he answers and pulls two popsicle-packets out of the cooler “-here ya go.”

After handing them to Sans, he holds out one of his hand-paws “That’s 30 G, pal”

Sans rummages through his coat’s pocket for a moment before pulling out a few coins- “there ya go” -and handing them to the bunny. He turns away and starts walking again. You call a quick “Thank you!” over your shoulder before hurrying after the skeleton. 

You don’t see the startled expression or the happy smile on the bunny monster’s face.

Once you reach Sans again, he holds one of the nice creams out to you, unwrapped. He has the other between his teeth already and throws both wrappers into a trashcan near a bench. He sits down, the popsicle clamped between his teeth. You take a seat next to him, on his right side where you always sit when you’re on the couch at home. Absentmindedly, you lean against him, reveling in the coldness of the ice on your tongue. 

You lick at the popsicle and look up at Sans, wondering how he would eat it; does he just bite it off?

In fact, no. He doesn’t bite it off. There’s a tongue, hanging out of his maw and lazily lapping at the cold treat. It’s red and it’s partially translucent so you take a wild guess at that this is probably his magic at work.

Once he notices your curious look on him, he freezes (hah) and it takes him a moment before he sticks the whole thing behind his teeth and pulls the stick out without any nice cream left on it. Your shocked expression from that sudden action makes him bark out a laugh and grin down at you. 

“what, why’re ya lookin’ at me like that?” he asks, a slight blush of red dusting his zygomatic arches, apparently self-conscious about the appendage.

You shake your head at him, taking the popsicle out of your own mouth to speak “I just didn’t expect you to have a tongue? I mean, I saw you yawn before and there was nothing there...”

“well, sweetheart...” he starts and bows down to be eye-level with you, only to open his teeth widely to show you his hollow mouth “i don’t really need it, y’see?” he says without moving his jaw or sounding any different because of it.

“How... are you doing that?” you ask while getting closer to him, to inspect his teeth up-close. Yep, those are sharp. Especially the golden fake tooth.

“doin’ wat?” he retorts, looking at you while keeping his mouth open for your inquisitive stare.

“You know, talking? Or the tongue for that matter.” you clarify and sit back a bit as signal for him to close his mouth again.

“well, since monsters’re made of magic, we don’t have all those squishy organs ya humans have, like vocal cords and lungs? our speech’s basically jus’ a projection, so we don’t really **need** ta move our mouths ta talk. at least i don’t. and the tongue? it helps me absorb food’n stuff. is easier than just dumpin’ it in my mouth, heh” he explains.

Sans seems to contemplate something, so you hold off your next question for a moment longer. “the tongue’s also really useful for... other stuff...” he implies and waggles his browbones at you. You groan and facepalm at his remark.

“Yea, yea, Mr. Pervy Skeleton.” he chuckles, deeply amused at his own joke. “Can I... can you make it appear again? I wanna look at it” you ask, trying not to sound too ambiguous.

He makes an amused noise at that and opens his mouth again, leaning down to you once more. “knock yerself out, sweetheart.” And there it is. The translucent, red glowing tongue you never thought he’d have. “Can you move it? Like, normally?” - “whaddya mean, ‘normally’?”

He licks the inside and outside of his teeth as demonstration, before letting it hang out of his mouth haphazardly. “like dis?” he asks, raising a browbone at you. “Well, at least you don’t cut yourself with how sharp your teeth seem to be. What does it feel like?”

The magic appendage disappears and he closes his mouth again, sitting up straight. “what does what feel like?” - “Your tongue, is it wet like a human’s tongue?” - “why is your tongue wet?” he asks.

“I suppose with humans the saliva has something to do with the digestive system? It helps us break down the food we eat before swallowing it” you explain to him. He seems to think about it for a moment before answering;

“then probably no, my tongue wouldn’t be wet. i could make it be tho. if your control on the magic is good enough ya can form anythin’ ya want and make it any consistency ya want, too” he states before elaborating;

“see, there’s magic attacks that we form separately, like this-“ he summons a small bone the size of your hand in the air next to him. “-that normally follow some kind of pattern, least in a fight. papyrus and i, we use bones. those are, obviously, solid. then there are monsters that fight with water or fire, summon some kind’a familiar or just form a weapon to wield or throw” The bone disappears again.

“that’s at least the magic we use in fights. then there are healing magic and jus’ other forms of it that are really useful. like me ‘port’n around or picking up stuff without having to lift it maself-“ you cut him off.

“You can use telekinesis? Show me!” you bounce in place in excitement and he chuckles at you before his left eyelight grows and the right one shrinks until it almost disappears. You feel a tingle around yourself before feeling weightless.

Your head swivels around with you looking around excitedly, watching as you slowly begin to lift up off of the bench. Sans can’t help but laugh heartedly at your excitement.

“Sans! I’m flying! You’re making me fly!” you exclaim happily.

“Not exactly sweetheart, ‘m jus’ messin’ with yer gravity a bit.” he says lazily, lifting his hand and effectively boosting you a few feet up in the air. He watches you turn in the air, flailing your arms to try and steer where you’re going.

Once you got yourself mostly turned back to face him, you’re upside-down as well. Sans looks up at you with an easy grin, watching you so he doesn’t accidentally bump you into the lamp-post or a nearby tree.

You stretch your arms out for him and he gets what you’re trying to ask as fast as always. You float down slowly into Sans’ waiting arms and gravity takes effect on you once more, making you almost topple and tumble to the ground. You laugh as you regain your composure in his arms.

“ _This is amazing!_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Criticism is also always welcome!


End file.
